
Qass_^ 
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APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, 

THE 

PAGAN CHRIST 
OF THE THIRD CENTURY. 

AN ESSAY 

BY 

ALBERT" REVILLE, 

DOCTOR IN THEOLOGY AND PASTOR OF THE 
WALLOON CHURCH IN ROTTERDAM. 

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION. 



LONDON: 
JX)HN CAMDEN HOTTEN. 

1866. 



DEDICATED, 



IN REMEMBRANCE OF AN OLD FRIENDSHIP, 



WRITER OF THE ESSAY, 



BY 



THE TRANSLATOR. 






TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Progress of Christianity during the third century — 
Attempts to Christianise the old Pagan creeds. 

Page 1—3 

SECTION I. 

Result of the attempt to Christianise Paganism — 
Apollonius of Tyana—Philostratus and his life of 
Apollonius — Character of the work — By whom 
patronised — The Dynasty of Severus — Julia Domna 
and her successors — Female iLfluence — El.-igabalus. 

Page 4—19 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

SECTION II. 

Apollonius of Tyana — His life and travels — Charac- 
teristics of his teaching. 

Page 19—53 

SECTION III. 

Estimation in which Apollonius was held —Controver- 
sies on the subject — Evident intention of the work — 
The relative positions of Christianity and Paganism. 

Page 54—79 
SECTION IV. 

Results of the attempted Pagan Reformation — Sum- 
mary of the whole subject— Inferences drawn. 

Page 79 — 100 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, 

THE 

PAGAN CHRIST 

OF THE THIRD CENTURY, 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA AND THE IMPERL\L COURT 
OF SEYERUS AND HIS SUCCESSORS, 

nr^HE acknowledged triumpli of Chris- 
-*- tianity during the reign of Constaii- 
tine lias always been considered one of 
those unaccountable rcYolutions and one 
of those historical surprises wdiich, uncon- 
nected as they seem to be wdth any pheno- 
mena of the past, might almost be deemed 
miraculous. One longs to find out by 
whac process the human mind passed so 
rapidly from a contemptuous and utter 
denial of the teachings of Christianity to 
an interest in and an aYow^ed sympathy 
for the doctrines of the new creed. It 
has long been thought that this problem 

B 



2 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

could not be solved; and yet, in point of 
fact, in this as in many other cases, the 
transition was caused by no sudden shock, 
and modern critics have discovered a series 
of Avhat we may call middle terms which 
will henceforth tell very materially upon 
the history of the progress of religious 
thought in the world. 

It was in the fourth centuiy, imme- 
diately after the most violent persecutions, 
that Christianity, though embraced and 
professed by the minority only, succeeded 
in attaining to a commanding position in 
matters both social and political. During 
the third century, ho\ve\'er, an attentive 
observer might have foreseen the dawn of 
this unexpected triumph from certain in- 
ternal convulsions which were then affect- 
ino; Paganism. An extraordinary chancre 
had taken place in the ideas of the Pagan 
world. People were very far from avow- 
ing themselves openly as Christians, and 
yet they were making decided efforts to 
Christianise the old creed, that of natural 
religion. An anxiety was evinced that this 
old creed should be imbued with more 
spiritualism, that it should become more 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 3 

moral, and, moreover, that it should be 
purified from all traditional absurdities 
and impurities. And, further, it was be- 
lieved that the religious ideal which had 
been dreamt of could only be realised in 
an incarnation, in a perfectly holy and 
perfectly beautiful human life, which 
should enable that ideal to lay hold upon 
the consciences of men ; hence various 
means were devised to furnish reformed 
Pacjanism with a like a'ift to the one en- 
joyed by the Christians, thrcngh the Gos- 
pel, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 
In a word, an attempt was made to intro- 
duce a Pagan Christ. The absurdity, we 
might almost say, the childish simplicity of 
these attempts must not blind us to their 
importance and to their historical value. 
There is a certain mixture of grandeur 
of conception and pettiness of realisation 
which constitutes the very moral essence 
of this remarkable era, in vrhich the old 
religion, foreseeing its imminent decline, 
conceived the idea of prolonging its days 
by the adoption of those outvrard trappings 
and outward forms which belonged pro- 
perly to its younger rival. 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 



The biography of Apollonins of Tyana, 
written by Philostratus of Lemnos, is one 
of the most curious results of this attempt 
to remodel and revive Paganism. Philos- 
tratus was one of the many men of letters 
and science who had collected together 
round JuUa Domna, the wife of Septi- 
mius Severus. The influence which Julia 
Domna exercised over the reign of her 
husband (a.d. 193 — 211), and more espe- 
cially over that of his successor Caracalla, 
who died a.d. 217, is an acknowledged fact 
in history. It was in obedience to the 
express desire of his illustrious patroness 
that Philostratus wrote the biography of 
the learned Apollonins of Tyana, who 
lived, it was said, in the days of the 
first emperors, from Augustus to Domi- 
tian ; in other words, during the whole of 
the first century. Other writers, as, for 
instance, iSIaximus of Egae and Maera- 
genes, had already touched upon the same 
subject. According to his own statement, 
Philostratus had made free use of a num- 
ber of unpublished anecdotes, which had 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 5 

been compiled by a faithful disciple and 
constant companion of ApoUonius^ and 
were kno^^Ti by a title equivalent to our 
term " Scraps." It would appear, further, 
that these early works were so notoriously 
imperfect, that a complete revisal of this 
strange history had become desirable. 

The work of Philostratus is not only 
interesting in itself, and more amusing, if 
I might be allowed to say so, than many 
modern novels, but it is one of the most 
iustructive books we possess. It throws 
considerable light upon the manners, ideas, 
and creeds of the period. We are enabled 
by its aid to understand more of the moral 
aspect of times which it is almost impos- 
sible to realise when studied by the light 
of Roman history. It admits us at once 
into the religious atmosphere which would 
of necessity influence the sympathies of 
Pagan thinkers. On all these grounds it 
richly deserves the high rank assigned to 
it by modern criticism, amongst the many 
documents which relate to the third cen- 
tury. Its interesting character will be more 
easily understood if we bear in mind the 
source from which it sprang. History 



6 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

has failed to notice the powerful influ- 
ence of a priestly family composed en- 
tirely of women during its most flourishing 
days, and ^vhich, so long as the dynasty 
of Severus lasted, did imperceptibly, yet 
most really and powerfully, turn the tide 
of events and direct the current of thought 
in the Roman empire. By the expression 
^Mynasty of Severus" I understand the 
reigns of the four emperors, beginning 
wath Septimius Severus (a.d. 193), and 
ending with Alexander Severus, who died 
A.D. 235. 

Septimius Severus ascended the throne 
during one of those critical revolutionary 
periods when it w^as doubtful whether the 
gigantic piece of state machinery founded 
by Julius Caesar and Augustus was not 
crumbling to pieces and doomed to be split 
up into five or six different kingdoms. On 
the death of Nero a similar shock had 
been experienced; Vindex, Galba, Otho, 
and Vitellius had succeeded each other 
with alarming rapidity. Fortunately for 
the stability of the empire, Vespasian, a 
soldier of great energj' and greater genius, 
seized hold of the reins of government 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 7 

^vitli a strong and determined hand, and 
restored public affairs to something like a 
condition of safety. Septimias Severus 
was a second Vespasian. After the death 
of Commodus, the last of the Antonines, 
everything Avas again thrown into confu- 
sion. Pertinax, a mere puppet in the 
hands of the troops, reigned for a few 
months only. Didius Julianus, Pescen- 
nius Niger, Albinus, and Septimius Seve- 
rus were almost shnultaneously proclaimed 
by the legions ; but Septimius, an intrepid 
and energetic general, popular with the 
troops and feared by the senate, soon 
triumphed over his rivals, and reigned 
not irigloriously for eighteen years. He 
gained the affections of the soldier}^ by 
the distribution of ^reat laro-esses, and yet 
he restored great strictness of discipline. 
One of the boldest steps he took was to 
disband the praetorian guard. He kept 
the troops constantly employed in foreign 
and distant expeditions, moving them about 
from the banks of the Euphrates to the 
mountains of Scotland ; and meanwhile 
at home he kept down any approach to 
conspiracies amongst the aristocracy by 



8 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

sheer force : such was the sum total of his 
poKcy. He was a most war-loving empe- 
ror, and when lying on his death-bed, tlie 
last advice he gave to his sons Caracalla 
and Geta was this, that they should make 
any and every sacrifice to secure the alle- 
giance of the army, and that with tliat 
once gained they might defy everything 
else. Little did he think then, that in 
refushig to choose a more solid foundation, 
he w^as slowly but surely preparing its 
downfoll. Antonius Caracalla, the suc- 
cessor of Septimius, was as passionately 
devoted to the pursuit of anns as his 
father had been before him, but he pos- 
sessed neither the same finnness of cha- 
racter nor the same administrative talent. 
He murdered his brother Geta, who would 
probably have murdered him had he not 
taken the initiative, and he played at the 
o-ame of war for six years ; eventually he 
was assassinated near Edessa by the prae- 
torian prefect Macrinus, who wore tlie 
imperial purple for a very short period, as 
the army remained faithful in their alle- 
criance to the family of Septimius Severus ; 
and Elagabakis, the reputed son of Cara- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 9 

calla, was brought from the temple of the 
sun at Emesa, and proclaimed emperor by 
the troops. He was a mere child^ fourteen 
years of age^ precocious in vice and ab- 
surdly bigoted ; he spent the whole of his 
time in the practice of religious ceremonies 
and ritual observances, in hopes of con- 
verting the world to the worship of his 
Syrian god. He, too, came to an untimely 
end; he was assassinated by the prae- 
torians by the tacit consent of the senate, 
and was succeeded by his cousin Alex- 
ander Severus, in spite of his youth (he 
was barely thirteen years oldj, from a.d. 
222 to A.ij. 235. Alexander was a good 
emperor, but his qualities have been ex- 
aggerated by Christian writers. Learned, 
anaiable, and careful of the public purse, 
he seems to have been deficient in mihtary 
courage, and as the soldiery had long been 
accustomed to the prodigality of his pre- 
decessors, and neither loved nor feared 
so inoffensive a sovereign, they assassi- 
nated him near the frontiers of Germany, 
and chose as his successor a man after 
their own heart, the notoriously daring, 
muscular, and gigantic Maximinus. 



TO APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

Such is a condensed summary of the 
Augustan history during the period about 
the middle of which Philostratus published 
his Hfe of Apollonius; it includes the lives 
of princes who, with the exception of the 
first, were below the ordinary average of 
men. And yet during this same period 
the empire remained comparatively tran- 
quil, and passed without any noticeable 
convulsion into an entirely new^ era. It 
was in Caracalla's time that this very 
serious transformation was effected, which 
had long been dreamt of and intended by 
the impeiial aristocracy, viz., that all who 
were freemen in the state shoukl be created 
Roman citizens. It was the final blow to 
the old Roman commonwealth. From 
that time forth Rome became the conquest 
of the provinces. The religious univer- 
salism which is so main a feature in the 
teachings of Apollonius has its counter- 
part in the political universalism the in- 
troduction of wdiich has given to the 
obtuse-minded Caracalla a position in his- 
tory which he was far from anticipating ; 
at the same time, however, when the true 
character of this period is closely examined, 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. II 

it \vill be found in a thousand different 
ways and on the most undoubted autho- 
rity that the male history of this period is 
only the superficial view, and that side by 
side with these sovereigns, who were either 
worthless or dissolute, there reigned some 
of the most accomplished and distinguished 
of women. 

In the foremost rank we must place 
Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius Seve- 
rus, the daughter of a priest of the sun 
at Emesa, in Coelesp^ia. Her husband 
had chosen her for a wife, even before his 
own accession to the throne, in conse- 
quence of an oracle which attributed to 
her a royal nativity. Julia Domna was 
beautiful enough to make the prediction 
easy of fulfilment in some way or other, 
and it may fairly be presumed that her 
beauty and sound sense, added to a lively 
imagination, contributed with the promis- 
ing oracle to make a deep impression on 
the heart of the austere general. As soon 
as she had been made empress she ga- 
thered round her the finest intellects and 
greatest orators of the day ; amongst them 
were Dion Cassius, the historian, the emi- 



12 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

went lawyers Paulus, Papiniaiij and Ul- 
pian, and Philostratus, the biographer of 
Apollonius. The influence she exercised 
over her husband must have been extra- 
ordinary, for Plautianus^ the favourite of 
Severus, never ceased to offer her the most 
systematic opposition, and at last fell a 
victim in the deadly strife. We may, per- 
haps, attribute the disparaging rumours 
which w^re circulated concerning the 
chastity of Julia Domna to the interested 
calumnies of Plautianus. Her husband 
w^as not the man to wank at such aberra- 
tions of duty, more especially if it be true 
that to conjugal infidelity she added poli- 
tical treason. Her evil reputation in- 
creased in the reign of her son Caracalla, 
though, by-the-bye, according to some 
historians she was only his stepmother, 
Caracalla being the son of Septimius by a 
former wife. On the same authority it is 
stated that the imperial buffoon w^as capti- 
vated by her admirably-preserved charms, 
and that he contracted w^ith her an inces- 
tuous marriao^e, a circumstance which led 
to her being called Jocasta by her enemies. 
Bayle maintains the improbability of the 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 1 3 

whole story, and rests his opinion on the 
fact that it is not mentioned in any 
way by two contemporary historians, Dion 
Cassius and Herodian, neither of whom 
manifests the slightest predilection for the 
family of Severus, and both of whom 
mention Julia as the mother of Caracalla, 
without the slightest allusion to so disre- 
putable a connection. We may safely 
infer, then, that it is a gross calumny in- 
vented by her enemies. She died a few^ 
days only after Caracalla, but she had long 
had an intimate and faithful companion in 
the person of her sister, Julia ^laesa, a 
woman of great determination and greater 
ambition. She it was who brought the 
yomig Elagabaliis from the temple of the 
sun, and introducing him to the troops, de- 
clared that he was the natural son of her 
daughter Soemis and Caracalla. Having 
triumphed over Macrinus, she and her 
daughter held the reins of government, 
whilst Elagabalus, the grandson of the 
former, was scandalisino; Rome bv his 
habits as a sun-worshipper, and by his 
fanatical desire to introduce the Syrian 
worship of the sun. It was probably at 



14 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

their instigation that this sorry specimen 
of an emperor, who had ah^eady compelled 
the senate to admit his mother as one of 
its members and to give her a seat at its 
councils, instituted a new senate composed 
of women, whose duty it was to issue de- 
crees on the subject of dress, precedence, 
right to kiss hands, carriages, pearls on 
shoes, &c., but who Avould hardly limit 
their deliberations to such trifling matters, 
although these only are recorded by the 
historians of the period, probably not with- 
out intention. When it became quite 
clear to Maesa that the earlier popularity 
of Elagabalus was rapidly on the Avane, 
she at once made him adopt, though much 
against his will, his cousin Alexander Se- 
verus, the son of her own daughter Julia 
Mamaea, the last of this extraordinary 
family. Soemis and Elagabalus died at 
the same time (a.d. 222) ; Maesa died soon 
after, and Julia Mamaea reigned until the 
year A.D. 235, under the auspices of Alex- 
ander Severus, who, according to the una- 
nimous consent of all historians, yielded 
the blindest submission to his mother's 
will. To the very last she guided her 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 1 5 

son's political career and regulated his 
moral conduct, and it must be added, in 
justice to her, that his private virtues con- 
trasted most favourably with the dissolute 
and infamous life of his predecessor. She 
abused her power, however, to such a 
degree that she compelled him to separate 
from a young wife to whom he was ten- 
derly and sincerely attached, and of whom 
his mother was jealous. Another of her 
mistakes consisted in her never having 
been able to control the army, which was 
in a constant state of revolt ; so great was 
their insubordination that the soldiery 
assassinated Ulpian under the very eyes of 
the emperor, and refused to be conciliated 
by her bounties. 

At last, when the veterans of Septimius 
Severus were replaced by fresh recruits, 
the army revolted more against Mamaea 
than against her son, and put both mother 
and son to death. 

Hence, notwithstanding the periodical 
murders which seem to form a part of the 
institutions of the Roman empire, we find 
a regular dynasty of empresses, all of them 
issuing from an Eastern temple, and im- 



1 6 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

bued with Eastern notions — women of 
extraordinary influence, and for nearly a 
quarter of a century — that is, fi'om the 
death of Septimius to that of Alexander — in 
possession of supreme and absolute power. 
Xow, when w^e can trace the existence of 
a prolonged female rule, more especially 
under the auspices of an absolute govern- 
ment, we may be quite sure that we shall 
soon find the direct consequences of female 
intervention in religious matters. And 
accordingly we find that in the contem- 
porary writings, such as the histories of 
Dion Cassius and Herodian, in the Au- 
gustan history which is not of a much later 
date, and in the historical records of the 
Lower Empire, a consistent course of 
action in religious matters may be dis- 
cerned, which, commencing in a somewhat 
mysterious way in the days of Julia 
Domna, is fully revealed under the aus- 
pices of Julia Mamaea. The absurdities 
and follies of Elagabalus are explained by 
what we may term the theology of his 
family on the mother's side. And we 
must further bear in mind that Philos- 
tratus wrote his book at the biddincr of 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, 1 7 

Julia Domna, and that the book was com- 
pleted a short time after her death. 

The campaigns of Septimius Severus in 
the far East had extended the intellectual 
horizon. People began to see that the 
world was considerably larger than the 
Roman empire. The emperor had stayed 
some time in Tyana ; he had been ill there, 
and his recoyery may possibly haye been 
attributed to the healing deity of the loca- 
lity. His soldiers had brought home from 
their distant expeditions vague and won- 
derful accounts of the kingdoms of Persia 
and India, wdiich their love of the mar- 
vellous had still further improyed. In the 
Indian experiences of Philostratus there 
may be found an extraordinary mixture of 
reality and fanciful invention. Severus 
himself had begun to take a part in his 
wife's philosophic and literary amusements. 
It would seem that, having but little confi- 
dence in the future of all imperial institu- 
tions, and even in the combination of 
Greek and Roman civilisation, he looked 
with no unfavourable eye on the introduc- 
tion of a foreign element into the moral 
life of his contemporaries. One circum- 

c 



10 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

stance, which is hoay an acknowledged fact, 
in the face of all appearances to the con- 
trary, is, that he very materially modified 
the penalties and disabilities which affected 
both Jews and Christians, and that al- 
though he forbade all attempts to prosely- 
tise, the persecutions which arose during 
his reign must not be attributed to his 
enactments, or even to his wishes. Procu- 
lus, his favourite slave, was a Christian ; 
the nurse of Caracalla was a Christian ; 
and during his reign, when the influence 
of Julia Domna was paramount, the Chris- 
tian CIuutIi enjoyed a period of perfect 
tranquillity. Matters remained unaltered 
under Elagabalus, although he entertained 
very decided religious opinions; but we 
have already seen that during his reign his 
grandmother, Maesa, and his mother, Soe- 
mis, were at the head of affairs. The 
condition of the Christians was, if any- 
thing, more favourable in the reign of 
Alexander Severus, who acted under the 
guidance of his mother, Mamaea. To 
Julia Domna must be awarded the credit 
of the first movement, in which all the 
other princesses of the same family joined, 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 1 9 

as they respectively came to the throne, 
notwithstanding the individual differences 
which characterised them. This brings 
us to A.D. 235. The main idea^ therefore, 
which pervades the whole of the religious 
movement over which they presided will 
be found in the work written by Philostra- 
tus of Lemnos, under the title of The Life 
of Apollonius of Tyana^ and ordered to be 
written by JuHa Domna. We shall now 
proceed to examine this strange histoiy. 

IL 

Apollonius was born in Tyana, a 
Greek city of Cappadocia, but it is nut 
certain in what year. From several coin- 
cidences, however, in his work, we may con- 
clude that the time of his birth was nearly 
identical with that of Jesus Christ. Dur- 
ing the period which preceded his birth his 
mother was favoured with a kind of an- 
nunciation, sent by the god of divination 
and penetrative science. Proteus appeared 
to her, and informed her that the child of 
v> horn she was then pregnant was an incar- 
nation of himself. When the child was 



20 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

born^ a chorus of swans, the messenger- 
IVirds of Apollo, celebrated his birth, and a 
thunderbolt, after falling from heaven, 
was seen to reascend. This was under- 
stood to signify a salutation offered by the 
gods to the newly-boni infant. Endowed 
with marvellous precocity, and with a 
beauty which attracted the attention of 
every one, Apollonius carried on his studies 
in the first instance at Tarsus, the birth- 
place of Saint Paul, under the auspices 
and guidance of a learned rhetorician ; 
but the dissolute morals of the place com- 
pelled him to remove, and thence he went 
to Egae, where he became an ardent ad- 
mirer of ^sculapius and a determined 
follower of Pythagoras. Of his own ac- 
cord he submitted to all the strictest tests 
of the severe novitiate and the old spiritual 
exercises which the philosopher of Samos 
imposed rigidly upon all his disciples, and 
shortly after he was seen to appear in the 
garb and manner peculiar to the sect of the 
Pythagoreans, that is to say, clothed in a 
linen tunic, barefooted, with long hair, 
and abstaining from meat and wine. His 
ideas on the uselessness, or rather the sin- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 21 

fulness, of bloody sacrifices — his remarks, 
which were characterised by a w^isdom far 
above his vears — the excellent advice he 
gave to those who came to consult ^5^scu- 
lapius — all contributed to strike the priests 
of that god with astonishment ; and the 
general admiration in which he was held 
was only heightened when, at the age of 
twenty, he gave up his patrimony for the 
benefit of his family, and took a vow of 
perpetual chastity. After a lapse of five 
years, which, according to Pythagorean 
rule, he spent in absolute silence, he began 
to travel about in Asia Minor, commencing 
his journey at Antioch. In every place 
the subjects of his teaching were the pre- 
cepts of true wisdom, the respect due to 
the gods, the true mode of worshipping 
them, and the necessity of returning to 
those rites of more ancient times which 
had either fallen into disuse or been 
strangely altered. Disciples were already 
following him in every place. Meanwhile, 
however, he did not consider himself sufii- 
ciently advanced, and desiring, as he did, 
to attain to higher degi^ees of wisdom than 
had been reached by Pythagoras and 



22 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

Plato, he left for India, intending there, 
amongst the Brahmins, to drink deeply of 
the pre-eminently pure and divine science. 
Passing through Babylon, he visited the 
^lagians. It was during this voyage 
that he was joined by a disciple from 
Kineveh, named Damis, and that he was 
enabled, besides the knowledge he pos- 
sessed of all human languages (which, by 
the w^ay, he had never been obliged to 
learn), to understand the language used 
by animals amongst themselves. Delighted 
to entertain such a guest, the King of 
Babylon kept him under his roof and lis- 
tened to his teaching with the most pro- 
found attention for a period of eight 
months. 

At last ApoUonius proceeded on his 
travels to India, and crossed " the Cau- 
casus," says Philostratus with all gravity, 
whose geographical ignorance, even as com- 
pared with that of the ancients, is mar- 
vellous. It is quite true that he is only 
repeating, with exemplary faithfulness, the 
statement of the historian Damis, whose 
imagination is of the liveliest. It is re- 
corded of Damis, by himself, that as he 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 23 

crossed the Caucasus* he saw the chains 
with which, in old times, Prometheus had 
been bound. AVe must do him the justice 
to say, however, that in order to sustain the 
character of a truthful and conscientious 
historian, he adds that he could not pos- 
sibly tell " what metal they were made of.'' 
After crossing the Caucasus, another 
king, an Indian potentate of matchless 
virtue — almost a Pythagorean in his mode 
of life — bestowed all kinds of admiration 
and praise upon Apollonius, and enter- 
tained him most hospitably. Prom this 
]n'ince it was that he received his earliest 
information respecting the sages of India. 
They lived, he heard, on a mountain, from 
the summit of which they issued their roll- 
ing thunders, and drove back such rash 

* It may be objected, in defence of Philostratus. 
that among the aticients the Paropamisus range (now 
the Hindoo Koosh) was sometimes called the Indian 
Caucasus. But in addition to the fact that Philos- 
tratus makes no distinction between the two ranges, 
his remarks on the chains of Prometheus, which were 
seen by Damis as he crossed the mountains which 
divide Persia from India, settle the question as to his 
real meaning ; for it was always agreed that the tor- 
tures of Prometheus took place on Mount Caucasus, 
properly so called. 



24 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

mortals as attempted the ascent without 
tlieh' permission. The nearer you ap- 
proached the mountain, the more wonder- 
ful were the thini>:s you saw. For in- 
stance, there was an insect there which 
distilled an oil the use of which was to 
burn up the walls of an enemy's town with 
ilames that could not be extinguished. 
Farther up a woman might be seen who 
was black from the head to the waist, and 
white from the waist to the feet, and who 
had been so formed designedly by Nature 
tliat she might receive the worship offered 
to the Indian Venus. In other places 
there were fields of pepper-plants, culti- 
A'ated by apes, and enormous serpents, 
which could be caught by merely placing 
a red rag, inscribed with certain magic 
characters, over the spots they usually fre- 
(juented ; and in the heads of these ser- 
pents there Avere precious stones which 
possessed the same virtue as the ring of 
Gyges. Then you came to the holy moun- 
tain : it was surrounded by a mist which 
could either be thickened or dissolved at 
tiie will of the wise men. As you ascended 
the mountain, you met with a fire which 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 25 

purifies from all pollution , a well which 
delivers oracles, two large stone vases, 
which contain, the one wind and the other 
rain, both at the disposal of the sages, by 
whom it was asserted that the mountain 
was the navel or centre of India. There 
they worshipped fire, which they boasted 
had been brought down directly from the 
sun, the peculiar prerogative of Prome- 
theus, and the s}Tnbol both to them and to 
him of inventive science. With his own 
eyes Damis saw these sages rise up into 
the air, to the height of two cubits, with- 
out any extraneous support and without 
any trickery whatsoever. The wise men 
do not live in houses, but when it rains 
they summon a cloud and shelter under it. 
They wear their hair long, have white 
mitres on their heads, and are clothed in 
linen garments, woven from a peculiar kind 
of flax which it is only lawful for themselves 
to gather. Their prodigious wisdom over- 
whelmed even Apollonius, who was not 
frequently astonished. They are in pos- 
session of absolute science ; they know at 
once the past history of every one they 
see ; they can answer all q^uestions. When 



26 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

asked, " Who are you f they answer, 
" We are gods." ''' Why ?" ^" Because 
we are virtuous." The biographer of Apol- 
lonius, who, amidst all the virtues with 
which he has adorned his hero, has cer- 
tainly omitted that of modesty, goes on to 
say that the latter was deeply affected by 
the intense wisdom of this reply. As 
might have been expected, Apollonius re- 
ceives from the Brahmins a full, complete, 
and literal confirmation of the doctrines of 
Pythagoras. The chief amongst them, 
one larchas, remembers having been 
" some other" — an ancient king or a demi- 
god in a country the praises of which he 
sings with that extreme humility which is 
so characteristic of the whole of that vene- 
rable corporation. Next to him we have 
Palamedes, one of the heroes of the Trojan 
war, who, in his new existence on earth, 
reappears as a Brahmin. It may be stated 
here by the way that Apollonius remem- 
bers having been a pilot in some former 
stage of existence, and how he had duped 
a number of Phoenician pirates who had 
tried to di^ag him into one of their preda- 
tory schemes. The conversations wdth the 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 27 

wise men of India are constantly inter- 
rupted by a series of events the marv^el- 
lousness of which is always on the in- 
crease. At one time tripods are seen to 
move of their oa\ti accord; at another, 
vessels of brass containing a refreshing 
beverage present themselves to the lips of 
the thirsty ; a cup is miraculously re- 
plenished the moment it has been emptied ; 
there is a stone, too, which attracts all 
others to itself ; and all this to illustrate a 
pantheistic doctrine, according to which the 
world is an animated creature, male and 
female in itself, in order to be self -crea- 
ting, and under the government of one 
supreme god, who is aided by a number of 
subordinate gods, who form a part of the 
one great whole. Apollonius is soon ini- 
tiated by his hosts in the science of as- 
trology and divination. Damis was not 
admitted to these meetings, and as Apol- 
lonius thought fit to keep his secret know- 
ledge to himself, Philostratus was unable 
to reveal the nature of the queen of 
sciences. At last, after five months of 
wonderment and study, Apollonius left the 
wise men wdio had stored his mind with 



28 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

such superhuman lore, and with whom he 
had Hved on such famihar terms, and re- 
turned by way of the Erythraean Sea, the 
Euphrates, Babylon, and Asia Minor ; 
then, not wishing to settle in Antioch, in 
consequence of the licentiousness of its 
morals, he directed his steps towards 
Ionia, and made a triumphant entry into 
Ephesus. 

The period of initiations had now passed, 
and from that time ApoUonius began his 
travels as a reformer and a prophet. 
Ephesus, a city notorious for its frivolity 
and effeminacy, was brought back by his 
teaching to the cultivation of philosophy 
and to the practice of virtue. The dissen- 
sions of Smyrna were allayed by his 
wisdom. After this he was recalled to 
Ephesus, where the plague was commit- 
tino; fearful ravao-es. In order to save the 
city from the visitation, he ordered an 
aged pauper to be stoned to death; and 
when the heap of stones by which he had 
been murdered and almost buried had 
been removed, a large black dog was found 
in the place where he ought to have been, 
from which circumstance it was concluded 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 29 

that the old pauper could have been nothing 
but an evil spirit. Thence he went to 
Greece^ remaining for a short time in 
Troy, where he conversed with the shade 
of Achilles, and was informed that the fair 
Helen had never been m the city of Priam 
at all. In Lesbos he visited the temple of 
Orpheus, and landed at Athens, where he 
healed a young man who was possessed of 
devils, interrupting himself, in order to do 
this, in a sermon against the voluptuous 
dances of Attica. Then he visited all the 
oracles of Greece, proclaiming himself as 
a reformer and restorer of the ancient reli- 
gious rites. 

In Corinth he opened the eyes of one 
of his disciples and enabled him to see 
that a woman, who to all appearance was 
most beautiful and wealthy, and to whom 
he was inordinately attached, was in reality 
a Lamia, one of those evil spirits who 
seduce the affections of young men and 
suck out their life-blood in the night at 
their leisure. At Lacedaemon he restored 
the ancient code of laws. In Olympia he 
was not only present at the games, but 
was almost worshipped by the attendant 



30 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

crowds. Thence he passed into Crete, 
and last of all went to Rome. 

Nero was emperor at the time. The 
sw^orn enemy of all philosophers, he perse- 
cuted them under the pretext that they 
were magicians ; accordingly the majority 
of the disciples of Apollonius forsook him, 
not daring to face the furious onslaughts 
of a tyrant like Nero. Apollonius, how- 
ever, fearless of everything, entered the 
capital and spent his time in the various 
temples, where his religious discourses pro- 
duced an immense sensation. Tegellinus, 
the praetorian prefect, ordered him to be 
arrested as a seditious person ; but, as- 
tounded by his surprising replies, and 
thinking that he had to do with some evil 
spirit, and not with a man, he directed that 
he should be set at liberty. Apollonius at 
once embraced the opportunity of his being 
liberated to restore to life a young girl 
who had been dead some time ; and then, 
as Nero, on his departure for Greece, had 
expelled all the philosophers from Rome, 
he determined to visit what was then sup- 
posed to be the far West — Le.y Spain and 
Africa* 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 3 1 

There^ again, he witnessed innumerable 
wonders ; amongst others, the phenomenon 
of the tides, which he accounts for (in a 
very learned dissertation) by the action of 
submarine winds, which blow from caverns 
situated on each side of the ocean, and 
^^ hich form, as it were, its breathing appara- 
tus. It is easy, in this, to trace the founda- 
tion on which the natural philosophy of the 
ancients rested, according to which it was 
held that the world was endued with life, 
and was, in point of fact, an animated 
creature. In the course of that voyage 
his heart rejoiced at the news that Vindex 
had raised the standard of revolt in Gaul. 
Further than this, his biographer would 
have us believe that Apollonius himself 
had prepared the movement, in concert 
with the Governor of Baetica. In Sicily 
he hears of the flight and death of Nero, 
and foretells the short reign of his three 
immediate successors. He reappears in 
Greece, visits Chios and Rhodes, still in 
the character of a reformer, and lands at 
Alexandria, having long wished to study 
Egyptian science, which was so much 
spoken of at that time, in the very land of 



32 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

its birth. There it was that Vespasian, 
who was aiming at the supreme power, 
conferred with him on the art of govern- 
ing, and that Apollonius incurred the 
jealous hatred of Euphrates, a man who 
had been one of his earhest admirers, but 
who had now become the confidential ad- 
viser of Vespasian, wishing him to restore 
the old Roman commonwealth. Apol- 
lonius, however, like a true disciple of 
Pythagoras, is but indifferently liberal in 
his views. In his eyes, an enlightened 
despotism is the best form of government. 
" The rule of one man, who watches over 
the good of all," is the secret of true demo- 
cracy. It is hardly necessary to add that 
Vespasian is of the same opinion. 

About the same period our soothsayer 
and philosopher recognised the King Ama- 
sis under the form of a tame lion, and 
caused royal honours to be paid to him. 
Then he sailed up the Nile, followed by 
the most courageous of his disciples, and 
from the deck of his ship delivers a series 
of religious addresses. It was like an ex- 
position of his religious belief. Eventually 
he reached the country of the Gymno- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 33 

sophists, those Egyptian philosophers who 
lived habitually in a state of perfect nudity, 
and devoted themselves wholly to the study 
of all heavenly truths ; but he found them 
far inferior to a similar sect on the banks 
of the Ganges. Philostratus is evidently 
jealous of the wisdom evinced on the banks 
of the Nile. He allow^s, how- ever, that 
very wonderful things are found among 
the Gymnosophists. They have trees, for 
instance, amongst them which are endued 
wdth intelligence, and bow politely to the 
passers-by. But in spite of these marvels, 
Apollonius very learnedly proves the in- 
feriority of this branch of the sect, and 
does it with such success that Thespesion, 
who is usually as black as a raven, is seen 
to blush scarlet from head to foot. The 
mythology of Egypt is another object of 
his bitterest criticism. He finds fault with 
the grotesqueness of the Egyptian idols 
wdiich represent the head of a dog and a 
sparrow-hawdv, for.]i;etting, no doubt, that 
in this respect, at least, India had but 
slight reason to reproach Egypti 

After sailing up to the sources of the 
Nile, or rather to the great cataracts which 

D 



34 APOLLOXIUS OF TYANA. 

were then mistaken for the real source of 
the river^ he returned from these extreme 
limits of the world to civilised lands, and 
from this period may be dated what we 
may term the Passio?i of Apollonian. 
Domitian, a second Nero, was emperor, 
exceeding, if that were possible, his proto- 
type, in wickedness. Apollonius began to 
travel up and down the empire, sowing 
everyAvhere the seeds of discontent and 
rebellion against the crowned monster. 
Though at a distance, he fosters in Rome 
itself a conspiracy in favour of the virtuous 
Nerva, whose imminent elevation to the 
throne he foresees with certainty. Having 
been warned of this, Domitian ordered 
him to be arrested, when the dauntless 
philosopher, taking the initiative, appears 
of his own free will in the very heart of 
Eome, in spite of the entreaties of his 
disciples and of Damis himself that he 
should not go up to the city. There he 
meets again with an old acquaintance, the 
praetorian prefect Elian, who does all lie 
can to save him fi^om the fury of the 
imperial tyrant, and who tells him that the 
main charo;e he will have to meet is that 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 35 

he has been guilty of cutting up a young 
.. (child) to pieces in the course of some 
maoic incantation— an accusation which 
was all the more unjust and abominable 
as Apollonius had always inveighed most 
loudly against bloody sacrifices. When 
in prison, the philosopher comforts and 
exhorts his fellow-prisoners. He appears 
before the emperor, who is anxious to 
inquire personally into the opinions of his 
opponent, and as the con\'ersation assumes 
a phase not very favourable to the cause 
of the despot, Domitian makes a sort of 
Ecce homo of Apollonius, orders that his 
beard and his hair be shaved, and that he 
himself be bound in chains and sent to 
prison in company with the vilest male- 
factors. Apollonius endures this igno- 
minious treatment most meeklv, and takino; 
advantage of a few moments when he is 
alone with Damis, he shows him that it 
depends entirely upon himself and his own 
will whether he shall shake off his chains 
or remain fettered by them. "And Deimis 
understood then that Apollonius was a 
god, and by nature more than man.*' 
From that time forth he no lono-er offers 



36 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

any objection to his master's wishes. The 
latter bids him leave Rome, join his friend 
Demetrius at Puteoli, and there wait for 
him. Meanwhile he is summoned once 
more to the presence of Domitian, and is 
questioned as to his knowledge of philo- 
sophy, his powers of divination, and his 
mode of life. To all these questions he 
gives replies which are so pertinent, that 
the emperor is almost inclined to release 
him, when all at once Apollonius disap- 
pears from the sight of all present. Al- 
though the strictest search is made and 
people are sent in all directions to look 
for him, they declare on their return tliat 
no one has seen him, and none can see him, 
for it is a supernatural disappearance. On 
the evening of the day when this miracle 
took place, Demetrius and Damis were 
conversing together at Puteoli, a small 
town which was about 150 miles from 
Rome. They had given up all hopes of 
again seeing the man by whose labours 
they thought the empire would have been 
saved, when suddenly a mysterious noise 
was heard, and Apollonius stood before 
.them. Thev were forced to take him bv 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 37 

the hand before they could fully believe 
that it was real flesh and blood and not a 
spectre they beheld. From that time his 
passion was ended, and the glories of his 
triumph begin. On his return to Greece, 
Apollonius finds the whole population 
ready to fall at his feet. But he washes 
to descend into the lower world, or, in 
other words, to receive the only initiation 
which he had not undergone as yet, that 
which was usually sought in the cave of 
Troplionius. In spite of the priests, he 
penetrated into the cave, through the aid 
and encouragement of Trophonius himself, 
with whom he conversed for seven whole 
days. He entered the subterranean world 
at Lebadea, in Boeotia, and came out of it 
in Aulis. He had asked the god of the 
lower world which was the queen of all 
philosophies : like the wise men of the 
upper regions, the god answered, " That of 
Pythagoras." 

Apollonius died in Asia Minor. At 
Ephesus he was enabled by his power of 
second-sight to witness the murder of 
Domitian as though he had been present 
at it, and he described it in such minute 



38 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

detail to the Epliesians that tliey could 
hardly believe their own ears ; but they 
must have been compelled to believe in 
him fully when the news of the event 
reached them through the ordinaiy chan- 
nels. Apollonius was at that time between 
eighty and ninety years old, and some say 
more than a hundred. Many rumours 
were circulated respecting his death, of 
which the faithful Damis was not a wit- 
ness, as his master had intrusted him with 
a message to Nerva, and it was during his 
absence that he disappeared from amongst 
men. The generally-received account was, 
that having gone to Crete, Apollonius 
went mto the temple of Diana Dictynna, 
and that he never came out of it again. 
Young maidens' voices were heard singing 
in the air, " Quit the earth, ascend up into 
heaven." It is added that some few^ years 
after he appeared suddenly to a young 
unbeliever who had ridiculed his doctrine, 
and w ho fell to the ground awe-struck by 
the vision, in the greatest consternation 
and most penitent alarm. After his death, 
the city of Tyana paid him divine honours, 
and the universal respect in which he w^as 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 39 

held by the whole of the Pacran world 
testified to the deep impression which the 
life of this supernatural being had left i]i- 
delibly fixed In their minds, an impression 
which caused one of his contemporaries to 
exclaim, '^ We have a god living amongst 
us/' 

Such is a summary of the chief events 
in the life of ApoUonius, as we find them 
recorded in his biography written by Phi- 
lostratus. AYe shall now be in a position 
to make a few remarks on his miracles, 
his teaching, and his character generally. 
Several of his miracles have been men- 
tioned; many more might have been added. 
It is perfectly clear that the biographer of 
Apollonius relied on the unlimited credu- 
lity of his readers ; but there is one feature 
which deserves our attention more than 
the strange stories recorded by Philo- 
stratus, and that is the extreme anxiety 
he manifests to exculpate Apollonius from 
the slightest suspicion of having anything 
to do with sorcery. The magicians of 
that day were a numerous body of impos- 
tors, deservedly held in contempt by all 
sensible people, and yet dreaded and con- 



40 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

suited by the majority. They were in 
reality the sorcerers of the period ; and it 
is quite sufficient to have read a work hke 
the biography of Philostratus to be fully 
convinced of the serious mistake made by 
some contemporary historians when they 
say that magic was one of the conse- 
quences of Christianity, in this sense, viz., 
that it was the legitimate reaction of 
natural religion as opposed to priestly 
tyranny and oppression. It is far more 
reasonable to conclude, that with all its 
illusions and all its impostures, this magic 
was one of the far too numerous relics of 
polytheism Avhich Christianity, even in 
our own day, has not been able to eradi- 
cate entirely. The magician of ancient 
times wrought his magic wonders, as the 
witch of our own days is said to do, either 
by the instrumentality of evil spirits, or by 
virtue of certain forms, ceremonies, and 
incantations which are of an immoral 
tendency. Accordingly we find that the 
sorcerer is a dangerous creature, whose 
sole aim is to secure his own personal 
benefit and the satisfaction of his evil 
passions; now the raling power for the 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 4I 

time being is perfectly justified in putting 
down such a character. Far different in 
nature is the wonder-worker who, hke 
ApoUonius, performs miracles by virtue of 
liis hio'her knowledtre and his communion 
with the gods. In order to attain to such 
a power he must practise virtue w^ith the 
greatest austerity ; he must be distin- 
guished by the strictest purity of morals, 
and must be obedient to the severest of 
disciplines. Through these he is enabled 
to put spirits of impurity to flight, to 
foretell future events, to discern the secret 
thoughts of others, to be visible or invisible 
at will : in a word, Apollonius owes his 
power not to magic but to theurgy, and if 
it be said that theurgy has not more truth 
in it than magic, if like the latter it only 
denotes a gross ignorance of Nature and 
her irrefragable laws, at any rate it pro- 
ceeds, in a moral point of view, from a 
much higher source. 

As regards the philosophical and re- 
ligious doctrine of Apollonius, we have 
already alluded to the theological principle 
which lies at the root of it. It consists of 
a kind of pantheism clothed in polytheistic 



42 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

forms, which does not seek to destroy in- 
dividual responsibility by absorbing it into 
the great all, but on the contrary evinces 
a very decided monotheistic tendency. 
Apollonius seems inclined to beUeve that 
the various gods who are worshipped by 
the people are symbols or different repre- 
sentations of one and the same deity. 
This is the reason why he visits all tlie 
temples without distinction, and endea- 
vours to purify the forms of worship 
adopted in them from every element of 
licentiousness wdiicli the superstition of the 
vulgar might have mixed up with them. 
Venus herself must become the goddess 
of pure love, free from all carnal lust. 
Thus wdll the moral sense become the 
means of discerning religious truth, and 
of rectifying with authority the mo^^t pre- 
valent traditions. Accordingly, we fre- 
quently find that Apollonius subjects the 
traditional creeds and mythologies to the 
most fearless criticism. Like Plato, he 
blames the poets for having lowered the 
character of the gods by their fabulous 
descriptions. It seems absurd to him that 
Minos, cruel tyrant as he w^as, should ad- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 43 

minister justice in hell, whilst a good king 
like Tantalus is doomed to a frightful 
punishment. He laughs at the stories 
of the wars of the giants with the gods, 
and of Vulcan strikincr his anvil in the 
deep caverns of ^tna. The gods, he 
thinks, should only be represented under 
the most ideal forms, and the masterpieces 
of religious art are only valuable so far as 
they reflect in some degree the ever-beau- 
tiful. The sun is the purest and most 
fitting symbol of the Deity, and hence 
Apollonius pays homage before all others 
to the sun and to the sun-gods, Apollo, 
^^sculapius, Helios, and Hercules. His 
own name is an indication of his entire 
devotedness to the worship of the sun. 
The Brahmins, the ^\asest of men, who in 
reality live by his substance, worship the 
sun all the day long. The essence of the 
gods is the light of heaven. By partaking 
of it man becomes a crod. and this is onlv 
natural in man, inasmuch as his soul is a 
ray of the Divine essence, imprisoned in 
the body for awhile, and journeying 
through a series of existences until the 
moment when it shall have been sufficient! v 



44 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

trained in science and in the practice of 
virtue to gain admission into the heavenly 
regions. Hence arises the propriety and 
the absolute necessity of asceticism : in 
other words, of war against the flesh, 
which is the destructive prison-house of 
the soul. Apollonius and his followers, like 
Pythagoras and his disciples, constitute a 
reo-ular order of Pao:an monks, and when 
we bear in mind that apart from all con- 
tact with Christian churches, the Pao:anism 
of the far East has furnished a very simi- 
lar instance for centuries, we cannot but 
wonder at the strange obstinacy of certain 
modem writers who assert that the monas- 
tic life is one of the chief and most cha- 
racteristic institutions of Christianity. The 
determined efforts of Paganism to become 
a moral religion without any great modi- 
fication of forms or of creeds are traceable 
both in the religious teaching and in the 
theurgy of Apollonius. It is no longer 
Nature viewed through her severer or 
gentler phenomena ; it is no longer the 
hero who subdues monsters, or the formi- 
dable champion of right against wrong, 
who will concentrate in himself the reli- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 45 

gious veneration of the world, but it is 
the wise philosopher who leads all but a 
Divine life in the midst of his fellow-men, 
and who teaches them how to raise them- 
selves to the same high level which he him- 
self has reached. But how true it is that 
a religion is never quite false to the prin- 
ciple on which it is founded I Not only- 
does Apollonius attach an inherent efficacy 
to outw ard rites, but even in his reformed 
Paganism we can see at once the error 
and the fundamental delusion which have 
given birth to every system of polytheism 
— viz., the confusion of the natural with 
the spiritual, of the visible phenome- 
non with the unseen reality wliich seems 
more or less to bear some analogy to that 
phenomenon. It is not easy to say with 
certainty whether Apollonius really wor- 
ships the sun itself, or whether he looks 
upon it as the highest manifestation of 
God. One thing, however, is certain — 
viz., that he explains the superior wis- 
dom of the Brahmins by the circumstance 
that, living as they do on an exceedingly 
high mountain, and thus being able to 
breathe the pure ether, they possess all 



46 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

moral light, because they are constantly 
drawing from the true source of all phy- 
sical light. Here we have the same method 
of reasoning as in that gross myth, the 
birth of Minerva, the pure light which 
follows the storm issuing from the cleft 
forehead of her father the sky. According 
to the myth, the physical deity became 
the symbol of clear and penetrating wis- 
dom. It was hardly worth while that Apol- 
lonius should have made such a display of 
Pacran rationalism if he was so soon to fall 
again into the most complete mythological 
system. 

A contrast, or rather an inconsistency, 
of the same character may be noticed in 
the views of Apollonius on humanity in 
general. On the one hand, the whole of 
his life and the whole of his teaching are 
founded on the idea that all men are called 
to receive and practise truth. In one sense 
he can say, like St. Paul, that for him 
there is neither Greek nor barbarian. He 
speaks and acts as a reformer, on the banks 
of the Euphrates as well as on the Kile, 
and in Spain as well as in Ethiopia. The 
highest wisdom^ according to his view, is 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 47 

found amongst the inhabitants of India^ 
beyond the limits of the empire. Ideas 
hke these prove undoubtedly that that 
nan'ow-minded notion of nationality, that 
particularly isolated view of mankind. 
^vhich had been fostered bv the various 
religions of Paganism (^yhich were^ as 
might be expected, essentially local and 
national), had gradually yielded to the 
pressure of outward circumstances, and to 
the Eoman yoke which ^yas now borne by 
so many hundreds of conquered nations. 
We have before us a regular system of 
uniyersalism — a kind of Pagan univer- 
salism ; and yet we can trace through it all, 
and at every step, the aristocratic spirit of 
antiquity. Grecian pride, and the high 
disdain which eveiy man born and nur- 
tured in Grecian civilisation felt for all 
other nations, were ever asserting their 
rights. We are reminded by this of the 
case of the Christianised Jew^s in the two 
first centuries, Avho preached the doctrines 
of a religion w-hich in theory was to be 
universal, and yet which was to retain, at 
all costs, the Divine and exclusive privi- 
leges of the Israelites. With them, as with 



48 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

the hero of Philostratus, national preju- 
dice is found to be stronger than the new 
principle, of which^ nevertheless, they pre- 
tend to be the apostles. Neither do we 
find in the Pagan gospel of Apollonius the 
trickling of the compassionate and sympa- 
thising tear which in the Christian Gospel 
is shed so constantly at the sight of the 
sufferings of the lowly and the poor. Apol- 
lonius heals many sick people, and does 
much good, but he does it coldly, correctly, 
and more like an artist who is trpng to 
eliminate all sounds of discord from the 
great harmonies of Nature, than like one 
who is touched by the infirmities and suf- 
ferings of that sacred being, so great 
and yet so miserable, whom we call man. 
He can realise what it is to be called a 
" Son of God f but he would neither risk 
his fame nor his happiness to merit the 
name of " son of man." Besides, in all 
violations of the moral law he only sees a 
series of evil and isolated acts which de- 
pend solely upon the free will of each 
individual ; but, like many a modern philo- 
sopher, he is blind to that fundamental 
incompetency to do the good which our 



APOLLOXIUS OF TYANA. 49 

conscience dictates ^vllicll exists in us all 
— that tendency to selfishness, that prone- 
ness to evil, which bears the same relation 
to particular and successive faults as the 
stem does to the branches and the leaves 
and the fruits of a tree. Hence his poli- 
tical system is even below the average. It 
is only when the natural selfishness of the 
human heart has been fully realised that a 
guarantee is sought against the ever-pos- 
sible encroachments of an autocracy in the 
various methods of control extant, such as 
in collective representation, in publicity, 
in the pei'sonal responsibility of the ruling 
authorities — in a word, in all the free insti- 
tutions of a free state. Apollonius believed 
in the possibility of a well-meaning and 
benevolent despotism, and could not ima- 
gine a better form of government. If the 
despot be a bad man, he must be removed 
by violent means ; and accordingly Apol- 
lonius is not unwilling to meddle in two 
conspiracies. The Roman empire had 
lasted a long time, and a religious thinker 
might have known that human nature was 
too weak to turn the good and virtuous 
characters of sovereigns into a permanent 

E 



50 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

institution. However, it must be granted 
that a certain atmosphere of pure and 
true morality pervades the whole of this 
system of teaching. There is a well-estab- 
lished theory in it, that virtue is the only 
foundation of happiness and true piety. 
It is a growth which one scarcely expected 
to find flourishing so luxuriantly in a 
decidedly Pagan country. We must not 
forget that Apollonius is not only a philo- 
sopher, a moralist, like Epictetus or Zeno 
— he is at the same time a popular re- 
former, an initiator, a kind of universal 
priest ; and the main idea in his biography 
is this, that a philosopher who is so holy is 
entitled to Divine honours, and, in point 
of fact, that he is a god in human form. 
But, on the other hand, even if we take 
for granted the statements which are made 
in the biography, and inquire how far we 
can share unreservedly in the admiration 
lavished upon the sage by his biographer, 
we shall soon find that his ideal and ours 
differ very widely. It is quite true that 
Apollonius is chaste and temperate — that 
he is actuated by the noble desire to know, 
and the still nobler desire to communicate 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 5 1 

his knowledo-e to mankind. He is in- 
geniouSj learned, and, generally speaking, 
there is a something at once lively and 
original in his language when he does not 
indulge in too long an oration — a some- 
thino; which is admirably suited to the 
character of a popular reformer ; but when 
we have admitted all this, wdiat a strange 
character we have before us, and fre- 
quently how ridiculous he seems ! In the 
midst of his attempts to reform a rehgion 
which, according to his own statement, is 
disfigured by foolishness and ignorance, he 
is himself superstitious to a degree. He 
believes in omens, in female vampires, in 
elephants who hurl javelins in battle, in 
the stone wduch eagles place in their nests 
to protect their young from serpents, in 
talismans. Pages might be filled with the 
enumeration of all the silly details which 
he records with all the seriousness of a 
new revelation. If his disciples admire 
him, they cannot exceed liis admiration of 
himself. He is constantly in an attitude 
— he becomes intolerable. He is fall of 
mannerisms, and is artificial from head to 
foot. Ever boastf ul, his controversies are 



52 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

more like the hectorings of a bully. He 
is the Don Quixote of religious and moral 
perfection. Damis might well be called 
his Sancho Panza ; for the latter, notwith- 
standing the great pleasure he experiences 
in following about this brave knight-errant 
of truth, as though he w^ere his shadow, is 
especially remarkable for the good com- 
mon sense of his replies to some of his 
master's sublime theories, and also for the 
exigencies of an excellent appetite. When 
Apollonius wants to deliver himself of 
some particularly high-flown sentiment, he 
usually propounds to Damis some knotty 
point for his solution ; Damis gives an ab- 
surd reply, Avhich furnishes our incom- 
parable philosopher with an opportunity 
to exhibit his overwdielming superiority, 
and Damis, who is apparently a man of 
excellent temper and spirits, laughs at his 
own folly. In his longer discourses, Apol- 
lonius manifests an intolerable pedantry, 
and so confirmed is his habit of treating 
every subject as though he were delivering 
a rhetorical lecture upon it, that he more 
frequently seems to be listening to his own 
talking than to be attending to his think- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 53 

Ing. ^lany a time, as he discourses, he 
forgets the severe morahty which he pro- 
fesses, so that in one of his sermons he 
goes so far as to exculpate perjury. 

These critical remarks must be under- 
stood to apply solely to the Apollonius of 
Philostratus, for before we proceed to dis- 
cuss the authenticity of the man and his 
history, we must state at once our belief 
that the historian has drawn largely upon 
his imagination for the description of a 
hero whom he wished to represent, no 
doubt, as the ideal of human perfection. 
Philostratus was a man of great genius, 
though his style is bombastic. The society 
of which he was a member, and for which 
he wrote, contained in its ranks men of 
the greatest eminence in the state. Ap- 
parently, the faults which to us are so 
glaring, more especially in a religious re- 
former, were more leniently viewed by 
the people of the period ; with this, how- 
ever, we have nothing to do. What we 
have to do now is to give a brief historical 
sketch of the work which was written by 
the favourite of Julia Domna, and to 
determine its real value. 



54 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

III. 

It is a noticeable circumstance that 
before the time of Philostratus, Apollonius 
had been but little heard of, whereas, both 
during his lifetime and after it, the sage 
of Tyana could count many and warm 
admirers. A temple was erected to his 
honour by Caracalla ; Alexander Severus 
placed him by the side of Christ, and Abra- 
ham, and Orpheus, amongst his household 
gods. At Ephesus he w^as worshipped 
under the title of Hercules, the warder off 
of evil {^AXe^UaKos). The Emperor Aure- 
lian spares the city of Tyana, which he 
had sworn to destroy, out of regard for 
Apollonius, who appears to him the day 
before the one on which he had determined 
to massacre the inhabitants. The histo- 
rians Dion Cassius and Vopiscus, the for- 
mer a contemporary of Philostratus, and 
the latter one of the writers of the Au- 
gustan history, hold him in the same 
veneration. His reputation as a holy man 
is so well established that Sidonius Apol- 
linaris and Cassiodorus, both Christians, 
speak loudly and eloquently in his praise. 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 55 

The former, more of a rhetorician and a 
man of letters than a bishop, translated 
his biography into Latin. It is somewhat 
extraordinary that the philosophical school 
of Alexandria which w^as represented by 
Porphyry and lamblichus did not esteem 
him more than they did, but they pro- 
bably had their reasons. On the other 
hand, however, Hierocles, one of the last 
and most brilliant champions of expiring 
Paganism, in his Discursus Philcdetliesj 
seized eagerly upon the character of Apol- 
lonius, and set it up in opposition to the 
Christ of the Gospels. He succeeded, it 
appears, to some extent, for his opponent, 
Eusebius of Caesarea, states that this 
portion of the attacks of Hierocles requires 
a special reply, whilst the rest of his work 
is a mere repetition of the old objections 
made against Christianity from the earliest 
times. Lactantius also deems it necessary 
to WTite against the parallel wdiich had 
been drawn by Hierocles, and he does it 
wdth such Avarmth and energy that the 
importance which was attached to the 
controversies of the period may be easily 
imagined. Arnobius and the fathers of 



^6 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

tlie fourth century ao;ree in attributino; 
the miracles of Apollonius to magic, which 
would imply that the miracles themselves 
Avere recorded as being opposed to it. As 
late as the fifth century we find one 
Volusian, a proconsul of Africa, descended 
from an old Roman family and still 
strongly attached to the religion of his 
ancestors, almost worshipping Apollonius 
of Tyana as a supernatural being. All 
these circumstances combined tend to 
prove that the work of Philostratus, far 
from being read as a mere romance, held 
a much more important place in the re- 
ligious discussions of the third and fourth 
centuries than any book could have done 
^vhich had only been written to amuse a 
select circle of wits. 

From the fifth century downwards, 
little is said about the book or its hero, 
at least in the West. The undoubted 
triumph of the Church deprives it of all 
positive interest. The night of the 
Middle Ages had set in. Not till the time 
of the Kenaissance do we see the life of 
Apollonius brought to light again with 
many other specimens of ancient art, all 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 57 

of them doubtless surprised to see the light 
of day once more. Even then^ however, 
there was something suspicious about this 
resuscitated ApoUonius, so much so that 
the learned Aldus ^lanutius hesitated for 
a time before he granted the publicity 
of the press to the work of Philostratus. 
At last he resolved to do so^ but took care 
to publish at the same time the reply of 
Eusebius to Hierocles, and thus to give^ as 
he expressed it hhnself, the bane with the 
antidote. Subsequently^ Pico della Mi- 
randola in the fifteenth century, and 
Jean Bodin and Baronius in the sixteen th, 
denounced Apollonius as a vile and detest- 
able mamcian. A^lthout entirelv revers- 
ing so sweeping a verdict, the seventeenth 
century seemed to think that the bio- 
graphy of the philosopher of Tyana was 
something more than a record of sorcery, 
and accordingly Daniel Huet, the famous 
Bishop of Avranches, expressed an opinion 
on the subject which ever since that time 
has had great weight with all thoughtful 
minds. "Philostratus/' he says, "seems 
to have made it his chief aim to depreciate 
both the Christian faith and Christian 



58 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

doctrine, both of which were progressing 
wonderfully at that time, by the exhibition 
on the opposite side of that shallow repre- 
sentation of a miraculous science, holiness^ 
and \drtue. He invented a character in 
imitation of Christ, and introduced almost 
all the incidents in the life of Jesus Christ 
into the history of ApoUonius in order 
that the Pagans might have no cause to 
en\y the Christians ; by doing which he 
inadvertently enhanced the glory of Christ, 
for by falsely attributing to another the 
real character of the Saviour, he gave to 
the latter the praise which is His just d^je, 
and indirectly held Him up to the admira- 
tion and praise of others." 

Again in the eighteenth century the 
Deists renewed the attacks made of old by 
Hierocles. Resting their arguments on 
the undeniable similarity between the 
Christ of the Gospels and ApoUonius of 
Tyana, they maintained that both histories 
were equally apocryphal. In 1 680, Charles 
Blount, an English Deist, pushed this 
dilemma still further, and said that we 
must either admit the truth of the miracles 
of ApoUonius as well as those of Jesus 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. ^^ 

Christ, or if the former are imtnie, he 
maintained that there was no better 
ground for beUeving the latter to be true. 
Voltaire, Le Grand d'Aussy, and Cas- 
tillon all wrote to the same effect. It is 
even said by some that Castillon's French 
translation was dedicated to Pope Clement 
XIV.5 with an ironical preface, signed 
Philalethes, and supposed to have been 
TNTitten by Frederick II. As a natural 
consequence, in Germany more especially, 
numberless refutations were ^vi^tten in 
answer to these modern imitators of 
Hierocles. But it was agreed on both 
sides that the work of Philostratus was 
^^Titten and published in a spirit decidedly 
hostile to Christianity. 

There was no doubt that a reaction 
would take place in so exaggerated a no- 
tion, and that reaction is now ^asible in 
the writings of Buhle, Jacobs^ and Nean- 
der. It is quite true that they have gone 
into the opposite extreme. It has been de« 
nied of late that there ever was any inten- 
tional reference in the life of Apollonius 
to Christianity or to the Gospel writings. 
Great stress has been laid upon the cir- 



6o APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

cumstance tliat there is tlie most complete 
silence in the book as regards Jesus and 
His disciples. They are never mentioned ; 
the existence of the Christian Church is 
ignored ; and yet the book contains attacks 
upon all kinds of rehgious and moral 
errors ; hence, it is argued, any similarity 
%yhich may exist between the life of Christ 
and that of the Pagan reformer is either 
accidental or forced. Can we agree with 
these opinions ? Are there no other proofs 
that the life of Aj^ollonius is moulded on a 
pattern which is almost identical with the 
Gospel story? ApoUonius is born in a 
mysterious way about the same time as 
Christ. Like Him he went through a 
period of preparation during wliich he 
displayed wonderful precocity in religious 
matters ; then came a season of public and 
positive activity ; then a passion, a kind of 
resurrection, and an ascension. The mes- 
sengers of Apollo sang at his birth as the 
angels did at that of Jesus. He is exposed 
to the attacks of enemies, though always 
engaged in doing good. He goes about 
from place to place whilst carrying out his 
work of reform ; he is accompanied by his 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 6 1 

favourite disciples^ amongst Avhom^ how- 
ever, disaffection, discouragement^ and 
even treachery make their appearance. 
"When the hour of danger is at hand, in 
spite of the prudent advice of his friends^ 
he goes straight to Eome, where Domitian 
is seeking to kill him, just as Jesus went 
up to Jerusalem and to certain death. 
Before that he had been the victim of the 
murderous jealousy of Xero, as Jesus had 
been exposed to the machinations of Herod 
Antipas. Like Jesus, he is accused of 
working his miracles of mercy by the aid 
of magic and unlawful arts, whereas he 
can only succeed in w^orking them because 
he is the friend of the gods, and worthy 
to be esteemed as such. Like Jesus, on 
the road to Damascus, he fills an avowed 
enemv with wonderino; dismav bv a tri- 
umphant apparition several years after his 
ascension. 

One very remarkable circumstance in a 
Greek work, written in a Greek spirit, is 
the great number of cases in which evil 
spirits are driven out at the bidding of 
Apollonius. He speaks to them, as it is 
said that Christ did, with authority. The 



62 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

young man who was possessed, at Athens^ 
through whom the devil utters cries of 
fear and rage, and who cannot face the 
look of Apollonius, reminds the attentive 
reader of the Gospel narrative of the de- 
moniac of Gadara. Neither is cured until 
some outward visible circumstance has 
taken place which gives the people rea- 
son to believe that the devil has really 
gone out. In the one case the herd of 
swine rush down into the lake ; in the 
other, a statue falls, overthrown by the 
violence of the evil spirit as he departed 
out of the young man. Again, another 
case of possession is singularly like the one 
of the epileptic child in the three first 
gospels. In Eome, Apollonius restores a 
young girl to life under circumstances 
which immediately remind us of the return 
to life of the daughter of Jairus. It may 
be remarked even still further, that the 
two stories are so recorded that a careful 
critic may ask himself with respect to 
each whether the young girl who was 
brought to life again had really been dead 
at all. The lame, the halt, and the blind 
come in crowds to be healed by the laying 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 63 

on hands of larchas, the chief of the In- 
dian sageSj from whom we know that 
Apollonius derives his knowledge and his 
power.. His miraculous appearances to 
his friends Damis and Demetrius^ who 
think at first that he is a spirit^ remind 
us at once, by the way in which they are 
told, of the appearances of Jesus after 
His deathj and, like the appearances of 
Apollonius, they are no longer subject to 
the laws which regulate the movements of 
matter in space. 

This astonishing similarity must not be 
exaggerated as though Philostratus had 
always and throughout his work kept his 
artistic and rhetorical taste and his ima- 
ginative love of the marvellous in a kind 
of subjection to a desire to reproduce the 
person of Jesus Christ in all its exact 
minuteness of detail. But surely all the 
points of resemblance which we have 
glanced at can neither be accidental nor 
imaginary. It is all the more difficult to 
believe this to be the case when we reflect 
that it can be stated positively that Philos- 
tratus evidently devotes much attention to 
Christianity, if he does not allude to it. 



64 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

Christian forms, traditions, and objections 
are mirrored upon his written thoughts, 
and very firequently determine the lan- 
guage in which those thoughts are ex- 
pressed. Apollonius is not only like Jesus 
Christ, but he combines in his own person 
many of the characteristics of the Apostles. 
Like Paul he travels up and down the 
world from east to west, and like him, too, 
he is the victim of Nero's tyranny. Like 
John, according to a tradition which pre- 
vailed even in his time, he is persecuted 
by Domitian. He understands and speaks 
all the languages in the world, and conse- 
quently had nothing to be envious of as 
regards the earliest disciples in what was 
called the gift of tongues. He is accused 
of sacrificing children with certain myste- 
rious ceremonies : the early Christians 
were charged with the same offence by 
the ignorant of their day. In Sicily he 
witnessed the birth of a three-headed 
monster, and inferred from this that the 
three immediate successors of Nero, Galba, 
Vitellius, and Otho would reign at the 
same time, and for a short period only; 
this might almost be a symbolical vision 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 6^ 

from the Apocalypse. Apollonius holds 
the Jews and Judaea in supreme contempt. 
Titus is, in his eves, an instrument of 
Divine A\Tath, and he refuses to go into a 
country which is polluted by the crimes 
and vices of its inhabitants, ^^•ith whom he 
could do no good. This leads us to make 
another observation of a somcAvhat similar 
character. In a general way the towns 
which are known to have been the chief 
centres of Christianity in the earliest days 
are either imperfectly noticed, or are sai d 
to have been converted by Apollonius, He 
received his earlier education at Tarsus, 
Paul's native city, but he left it on account 
of the corruption of its morals. Ephesus, 
Antioch, Smyrna, Alexandria, all of them 
great centres of Christianity, are the ob- 
jects of a like censure. To him, Ephesus, 
the head-quarters of Paul, and afterwards 
of John, owes its salvation. Apollonius 
did much good there, we are told, but 
learnt nothing. A Christian, reading his 
biography, will easily understand the pos- 
sibility of remaining attached to the old 
religion without its being necessary to 
approve of immoral practices, such as the 

F 



66 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

combats of gladiators, or to believe in such 
absurd fables as were imagined by the 
poets. Who knows but that there may 
be a bright light thrown upon the question 
of the divinity of Christ in that answer 
of Apollonius to Domitian, when he is 
questioning him after the manner of 
Caiaphas/" Why art thou called Godf' 
To which the philosopher replies, '^ Be- 
cause the name of God is the title due to 
every man who is believed to be virtuous." 
We must bear in mind now that at the 
time when Philostratus wrote, Christianity 
and the Church had outlived the period 
during which the brutal outrages of the 
populace in certain large cities only con- 
trasted with the contemptuous indifference 
with which they were treated elsewhere. 
The scornful disdain of a Tacitus or a 
Pliny was a thing of the past. Celsus 
had aimed the sharp-pointed weapons of 
his acute reasoning at the Gospel, Lucian 
had attacked it with his biting sarcasms. 
Numbers of the followers of Plato had 
been baptised. The Christians of Rome 
and their bishop had been in high favour 
at the court uf Commodus. ]Many dis- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 6"] 

tinguished martyrs had engaged the pubKc 
attention by their sufferings, and contem- 
porary historians were beginning to men- 
tion, as they related the lives of the em- 
perors, whether they had tolerated or 
persecuted the Christians. Can it be 
admitted, then, that Philostratus, at a 
time like this, when he had to write a 
work on the relicrious movement which 
was affecting the whole world, should 
never have once thought of Christianity? 
And if he did think of it, and systemati- 
cally avoided all mention of the subject, 
we are forced to infer that his very silence 
is anything but a sign of indifference. An 
apparent want of interest in a system 
which it is the wn^'iter's object to destroy 
is one of the ordinary phases of ancient 
controversy. The Epistle of James does 
not say a word about Paul or his school, 
and yet its aim is most certainly to refute 
the doctrine of justification by faith as 
taught by Paul. Another theological 
work, more like a romance than a treatise 
on divinity (the Clementine HomLlies)y 
was certainly prompted by a desire to 
refute Paul and Marcion, and yet they 



68 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

are neither of them mentioned by name 
in the work. 

One thing which is undeniably certain 
is that the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries were equally mistaken when 
they pronounced the work of Philostratus 
to be decidedly and essentially hostile to 
Christianity. It contains no evidences 
either of indifference or hostility to Chris- 
tianity^ but rather of jealousy. It is in- 
spired by a desire to turn the advantages 
and the superiority possessed by Chris- 
tianity over ordinary Paganism to the 
profit of a reformed Paganism, and if we 
consider the following words of the Bishop 
of Avranches, ^^Ne quid etlmici Chris- 
tianis invidere possent" (that the Pagans 
may have no cause to envy the Christians 
in anything), apart from the stronger ex- 
pressions of feeling which accompany 
them in the passage already quoted, they 
will be found to express the exact truth. 
To have indicated with such nicety the 
true nature of the book and its many 
varvino; and cliann:eful shades is one more 
proof of that character for learning to 
wdiich Professor Baur of Tubin^n is so 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 69 

justly entitled. It was necessary that 
Apollonius should be like Christ, but it 
was also necessary that he should be dif- 
ferent from, and superior to, Him. This 
circumstance alone can explain the various 
curious phenomena which require expla- 
nation, and its reasonableness assumes the 
form of absolute certainty when we fancy 
om^selves living in the same political and 
religious atmosphere as Philostratus when 
he wrote his book. 

Julia Domna was, as everybody knows, 
the Egeria of that Pagan reform which 
was more or less skilfully, but at any rate 
perseveringly, conducted (as such matters 
are when undertaken by women) by the 
empresses who were related to her, and 
who succeeded her in the supreme manage- 
ment of affairs. It would appear, then, 
that this priestly family, who had come 
from the Temple of El-Gebal (the god of 
the mountain or high place), animated by a 
spirit of religious domination hardly kno^^^l 
to the Paganism of the West, hoped to 
reform Paganism and to establish the 
supremacy of the Eastern deity, who was 
none other than the sun, the coarse image 



70 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

or symbol of which Elagabalus had 
brought to Rome. It was one of those 
black stones (probably an aerolite) which 
had been at all times worshipped in the 
East as symbols of the stars from which 
they were supposed to have fallen. Time 
and space would fail to enumerate the 
eccentricities which the young emperor 
perpetrated in serious earnest, in hopes of 
consolidating the supremacy of the sun- 
god. The first exercise of his authority 
consisted in a command that every priest, 
when sacrificing, should mention his name 
before that of any other god in the public 
invocations. He declared him superior to 
Jupiter. He wished to marry him to the 
Roman Pallas, and even profaned the 
much-revered shrine of the goddess by 
entering into it with his idolatrous priests 
to remove her statue, with which he in- 
tended to do honour to his idol : but fear- 
ing that she was of too warlike a nature, 
and remembering that there was an 
Astarte of true Phoenician origin at Car- 
thage, he sent for her. The whole of 
Italy was to rejoice at the celebration of 
these splendid nuptials. He himself was 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 7 1 

guilty of a most scandalous outrage against 
public morality, marrying, as he did on 
that occasion, a vestal, having informed 
the senate of his intention, and explained 
to them that it was lawful for a priest to 
marry a priestess. He invited over a 
number of Phoenician women, and danced 
with them publicly before the sacred stone 
which he had set up to be worshipped by 
the universe. Unhappily the symbols of 
tliis worship were revoltingly indecent^ 
and, in fact, some of the almost incredible 
details which are recorded of the private 
life of Elagabalus may be attributed to the 
ignorance that prevailed respecting the 
symbolical character of the rites he prac- 
tised. It may be remembered, too, by the 
way, that his mother, Soemis, and his 
grandmother, Maesa, joined in the same 
form of worship. Herodianus, however, 
informs us that Maesa would willingly 
have checked this feverish and bigoted 
zeal for sun-worship, which she easily 
foresaw would expose the foolish young 
emperor to ridicule and endanger his 
position on the throne ; and as nothing 
is said of Soemis, we may fairly presume 



72 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

that if she had not been the first to inocu- 
late her son with that fanatical infatuation 
for the god of his fathers, she at all events 
])articipated in it then. This opinion is 
streno-thened when we find that she even- 
tnally became as unpopular as her son, 
and was put to death at the same time. 
We must not, however, dwell too much 
upon this caricature of a religious concep- 
tion, which, after all, was not wholly with- 
out some redeeming features of greatness. 
By his fanaticism Elagabalus destroyed 
the idea which lies at the very foundation 
of the biography of ApoUonius by Philos- 
tratus. That idea was, that Greco-Roman 
Paganism needed reform, and that, Avith- 
out throwing its principles entirely over- 
board, its legends might be modified, and 
its nature altered into a kind of mono- 
theism in Avhich the sun would occupy 
the first place and be worshipped as the 
source of physical as well as moral light, 
and so embrace in one and the same 
worship the most beautiful and the most 
popular divinities of ancient Paganism, 
such as Apollo, ^sculapius, Esmoun, 
!Melkart, Mithras, and many other heroes 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 73 

of a solar type. The address " Soli invicto" 
would thus have become the universal 
prayer. 

Hence the worship of one god under 
different names^ and the pre-eminence of 
virtue amongst the elements of religious 
life, is the foundation on which this theo- 
logy rests ; its toleration is evident, and its 
nature such that it might easily have viewed 
Christianity as an approximation — a distant 
one, perhaps, but still an endurable ap- 
proximation — to the ideal conceived by the 
new Pagan school. There is only a step 
between this and the comprehensive reli- 
gious scheme which was fully developed 
in the reiiin of Alexander Severus, the 
young pupil of Julia Mamaea, who, with 
his mother's consent, placed Christ by the 
side of Abraham, Orpheus, and Apollonius 
of Tyana. The only thing is that Chris- 
tianity seems to be held in higher estima- 
tion by Julia Mamaea than by her parents. 

There is a tradition extant that Mamaea 
sent for the f^reat Orio-en in order that she 
might hear him speak on religious topics, 
and certainly by none better than the phi- 
losophical theologian could the Christian 



74 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

doctrines have been explained to the female 
philosopher who then ruled the empire. It 
lias been maintained that both she and her 
son secretly embraced the Christian faith, 
and although this is contradicted by facts, 
it still remains true that Alexander Severus 
proved himself, by his conduct, by his 
words, and by repeated imperial acts, as 
favourably disposed towards the Christians 
as a sovereiorn could be who retained his 
allegiance to the principles of Paganism. 

Hence we see that from the time of Julia 
Domna to that of Julia Mamaea, the cer- 
tainty that a reformation of Paganism had 
become a necessity resulted first in the 
toleration of the Christian religion ; 
secondly, in a certain degree of resj)ect, 
mingled in secret with jealousy ; and at 
last it went so far as to allow Christianity 
an acknowledged position in the broad 
light of day, by the side of the old tradi- 
tional religions, such as Judaism and Pa- 
ganism. One might have imagined that 
Alexander and his mother were establish- 
ing some such connection between Abra- 
ham and Jesus Christ as that which existed 
possibly in their minds between Orpheus, 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. *] ^ 

the poet and revealer of the remotest 
periods of antiquity, and Apollonius, the 
modern reformer, the Greek Christ, whose 
teachings had recently been enlightening 
the world. 

The gospel of Philostratiis (for in reality 
his work may be so termed) did not go 
sufficiently far for so comprehensive a sys- 
tem of religion. The aristocratic spirit of 
the Pagan Greek still breathed throughout 
it, and Julia Domna, who had fostered the 
writino; of the work, was not as vet so well 
disposed towards the religion which had 
sprung from the ancient soil of Judaea as 
her niece, Julia Mamaea, would afterwards 
become. If the reform she dreamt of was 
ever realised. Paganism w^ould have its son 
of God, pure, blameless, devoted to his 
mission, and adding to his doctrines tlie 
weight of influence which a bodily mani- 
festation and a real life alone can give to 
an ideal theory. Hence this reform must 
be a positive religion, and not only a sys- 
tem of philosophy. This is why Apol- 
lonius, though a great friend of the philo- 
sophers, must be superior to them all, even 
to Socrates. Their rational monotheism, 



76 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

by dint of a little symbolical interpreta- 
tion, will be reconciled with the polytheism 
of the majority. The most absurd of their 
legends will have to be put aside. Their 
sacrifices must cease to be distinguished 
by the shedding of blood and by acts of 
impurity, and for the future they must 
represent acts of submission and gratitude 
to the Deity, the source of all good, not 
clumsily-contrived means of working upon 
the Divine will, and propitiating it for the 
obtainment of gross and selfish objects. 
The upright intention and the moral cha- 
racter of the worshipper must alone deter- 
mine the true worth of all religious acts. 
Now all these conditions were already 
peculiar to Christianity, but reformed Pa- 
ganism was to enjoy them too ; and further, 
to possess other advantages which Chris- 
tianit}^ had not. Jesus was only the off- 
spring of an obscure and contemptible 
people ; His doctrine was but the refine- 
ment of a paltry local tradition ; His life, 
of which little was known by the great 
majority of his contemporaries, was ex- 
tremely short. He soon fell a victim to 
the attacks of two or three priests^ a petty 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 77 

king, and a procurator, and a few remark- 
able prodigies alone distinguished Him 
from a crowd of other existences which 
had nothing ^yhateyer to do with the des- 
tinies of humanity. Apollonius, on the 
contrary, a Greek by birth, had stored his 
vast intellect with the religious doctrines 
of the whole world, from India to Spain ; 
his life extended over a century. Like a 
luminous meteor he traversed the universe, 
in constant intercourse with kings and the 
powerful ones of the eartli, who venerate 
and fear him ; and if he ever meets 
with hostihty and opposition, he triumphs 
over it majestically, always stronger than 
his tyrants, never subject to humiliations, 
never brought into contact with pubHc 
executioners. The m^ost wonderful miracles 
are performed at CA^ery step ; and although 
the partial greatness which was enjoyed 
for a time by the Jewish Christ cannot be 
denied, and the partial truth which He 
tauoiit cannot be crain saved, and althouah 
those who have been driven into His small 
Church by the abuses of popular Paganism 
are tolerated, yet it woidd be absurd to 
hail Him as the founder of the universal 



78 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

religion; and it remains an obvious fact 
that He must play a very secondary part 
by the side of the glorious and Divine 
Apollonius. Such was the position which 
Julia Domna took when she asked Philos- 
tratus to write the life of Apollonius. 
Philostratus may have been less impressed 
than his royal mistress with the greatness 
and truth of Christianity, but he scrupu- 
lously kept in view the idea she had 
formed of religious truth — an idea which 
is perceptible in the lives both of Maesa 
and Soemisj with a decided bias in favour 
of Pagan superstition in the case of Soemis, 
and in favour of Christianity in the case 
of Maesa, with a clearly-expressed appre- 
ciation of its hio-her character. There are 
two isolated facts in the lives of Septimius 
Severus and Caracalla which to all appear- 
ance are of trifling importance, but which 
can only be explained by such a train of 
thought as we have been describing. 
These two emperors allowed the Pagans 
to make Hercules their heir ; hence great 
riches soon accrued to the temples and 
priests of that popular deity. At the same 
time, while refusing to persecute the Chris- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 79 

tians, Septimius Severus tlireatened that 
severe penalties slioulcl be inflicted on any 
Pagan who became a Clnistian. The law 
seems to have ended in a threat, but the 
intention by which it was dictated is evi- 
dent. On the one hand, it was not thought 
desirable that Christianity should make 
any rapid conquests ; on the other, all 
facilities were afforded to the prosel ytism of 
a confirmed Pagan worship. And what was 
that worship? The worship of Hercules, 
of a sun-god, or rather of many gods under 
one name, who, as Philostratus informs us, 
are the liberators, the benefactors, and the 
enlighteners of mankind. 

IV. 

What was the result of this attempt 
to effect a Pagan reformation? A mere 
nothing. The burden was a heavy one to 
raise, the arms that tried to raise it were 
very feeble. The idea that any one could 
seriously believe it possible that the star 
of the Christ of the Gospels should pale 
before the rising of ApoUonius of Tyana, 
serves only now to raise a smile. But 
even supposing that history could produce 



8o APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

a sufficient number of well-authenticated 
facts to prove that the worship of this 
paragon of inspired wisdom had lasted 
longer than is usually thought by those 
who look upon his biography as an amus- 
ing romance, we cannot admit that the 
scheme of reform which was incarnated in 
himself produced any lasting impression 
upon the intellects or the institutions of 
the period. 

One great stumbling-block was thrown 
across the path of this work of reforma- 
tion by the circumstance that the great 
Pagan philosophers of Alexandria, Por- 
phyry and lamblichus, who were no 
friends of Cliristianity, and who were 
equally anxious to purify the Paganism of 
mythology, refused to recognise the re- 
former introduced to them by Philostratus, 
although his authority would have been 
so eminently adapted to confirm their 
theurgic and ecstatic doctrines. The 
sentiments of the biographer on the 
subject of the wisdom of Egypt may have 
led to this determination of the Alex- 
andrian philosophers. Who knows but 
that Philostratus acted the part of a wise 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. Ol 

courtier to Julia Donina ^^lien lie cen- 
sured, as we have seen he did, the philo- 
sophy and religion of Egypt ? It appears 
that jokes had been rife in Alexandria 
respecting the daughter of the priest of 
Emesa, who had become an empress and 
a female philosopher. However, we can- 
not but believe that the real character of 
the Pagan Christ was sadly metamor- 
phosed as it passed througli the hands of 
Philostratus. Its interest as a channel of 
instruction having failed, it will be un- 
necessary to discuss seriously the historical 
value of the biography. It is more than 
evident that when people invent, as Philos- 
tratus lias invented when he speaks of a 
country to which he thinks none of his 
readers will follow him, it is very easy to 
give the reins to one's imagination in 
a description of events which occurred a 
century ago. There is one detail especiallv 
which indicates a great amount of shame- 
less effrontery, inasmuch as the truth of 
the matter must have been well known at 
the court of Septimius Severus — I mean 
the description which he gives of Babylon, 
as though the city were still in its full 

G 



02 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

splendour^j whereas it is an establi^iheJ 
fact that in the first century of our era 
Babylon was nothing but a gigantic ruin. 
Tlie individual who is described as the 
Pagan Christ by Philostratus was not 
held in any esteem in his own time. Dion 
Cassius speaks of him as of one Apollonius 
of Tyana^ AttoWcovios tls TvaveCs, and looks 
upon him as a mere seer or magician who 
lived, he says, in the reign of the Emperor 
Domitian. Lucian does not allude to him 
in a more respectful t(me ; in his estima- 
tion Apollonius is only a clever comedian. 
AVe find him mentioned ao-ain by Ori^^'eii 
in his work against Celsus. Now Celsiis, 
who attributed the miracles of Jesus to 
sorcery, had said that the arts of magic 
could have no influence except upon men 
who were devoid of all cultivation and 
morality, and that with philosophers they 
were powerless. Origen replies to him 
with the remark that in order to convince 
himself of the contrary he has only to read 
the memoirs of Apollonius of Tyana, by 
Maeragenes, who speaks of him as a philo- 
sopher and a magician who exercised his 
magic repeatedly on philosophers. Mae- 



1 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 83 

ragenes is one of the writers mentioned by 
the biographer of ApoUonius who Kved 
before his time; but when we bear in 
mind how persistently the friend of Julia 
Domna exculpates his hero from the 
suspicion even of being connected with 
magic, when we find him complaining 
that the historians who had preceded him^ 
more especially Maeragenes, had sadly 
misunderstood the actions and doctrines of 
ApoUonius, when he adopts as almost 
exclusively his own the anecdotes recorded 
by Damis (the St. Mark, as it were, of the 
Pagan gospel) we cannot get rid of the 
suspicion that the historical reality of 
ApoUonius consists in this, viz., that he 
Avas one of those itinerant preachers whose 
claims upon the public attention were 
partly absurd and partly real, who were at 
one and the same time preachers and im- 
postors, and who were a numerous body 
in the two first centuries. If these 
preachers obtained any degree of popu- 
larity as they went about from place to 
place, however small it might be, they 
soon became the nucleus, as it were, of 
some legendary comet, and as soon dis- 



84 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

appeared amidst the many-tinted clouds of 
apocryphal history. Men whose character 
was so open to suspicion were quite as 
much exposed to satire as to panegyric. 
Lucian has described an itinerant prophet 
of this description in his Alexander 
Abonoteichos, one of his best compositions. 
Like Apollonius, Alexander is a man of 
prepossessing exterior and imposing ap- 
pearancCj witty and clever, a zealous dis- 
ciple of Pythagoras, much devoted to 
u-EsculapiuSj a great seer, and, moreover, 
a pupil of the sage of Tyana. But be- 
yond all this he is an infiimous impostor 
who prostitutes his natural advantages to 
the most shameful ends. The picture may 
possibly be overdrawn, as all Lucian's 
pictures were. He is not more personal 
in the case of Apollonius than he is in 
that of a confirmed Christian in his Pere- 
grinus. He wished to concentrate all the 
dark sides of such a character in the person 
of an imaginary individual, but he has 
succeeded, meanwhile, in giving us a cari- 
cature of that same reality which Philos- 
tratus has also given us in a more than 
flattered form. The history of philosophy 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 05 

also mentions an Anaxilaus of Larissa, an 
itinerant Pythagorean of the Augustan 
period, who was not so famous for the 
extent of his know^ledge as for his powers 
as a magician ; he wTote on the art of 
magic, was quoted by Phny, and Hke 
ApoUonius w^as compelled to quit Italy in 
consequence of the imperial decree wdiich 
banished all magicians from the empire. 
Hence all these wonder-worknicj Pytha- 
goreans have a suspicious mark on their 
very face. And, consequently, it is quite 
natural that, notwdthstanding the efforts 
made by Philostratus to idealise a magician 
who had gained a great reputation in 
Asia Minor, the Pagan philosophers of 
Alexandria should have deemed him unfit 
to occupy the high position into which he 
w^as bemg forced, and that they should 
have refused to acknowledcre him as their 
ideal of the w4se friend of the gods. They 
chose rather to raise an opposition to the 
Christ of the Gospel through the instru- 
mentality of some illustrious Pagan whose 
cliaracter would be less open to suspicion, 
and whose life and conduct were more 
creditable. 



86 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

Accordinoly ^^e find (and it is another 
proof of the connecting hnk Avhich we 
think we have distinctly traced between 
tlie work of Philostratus and the progress 
of relimous tliou^^ht in the third century) 
that the same need of an incarnation of 
truth and hoHness in a human hfe, and 
the same reahsation of the power Avith 
which sucli an incarnation would imbue a 
religious ideal, are evidenced in the minds 
of the illustrious Pagans of Alexandria 
and of the favourite of the Empress Julia. 
This has been admirably noticed by Dr. 
Baur. The time was sure to come in the 
West as it had come many centuries before 
in the extreme East, with which Philos- 
tratus pretended to be familiar, when the 
old natural rehgion woukl struggle to be- 
come more moral. How was it that a trans- 
formation was taking place which was so 
completely opposed to its fundamental 
principle ? It was evidently being effected 
through those liberating and healing gods, 
Apollo, -3ilsculapius, and Hercules, all of 
them sun-gods, Apollo, more especially 
in Pagan Greece, was the god of moral as 
well as of physical purification. The 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 8j 

pulltv resorted to his sanctuary at Delphi 
to seek refuo-e from the aveno[:ino; Furies. 
He himself had shown an example of 
penitent submission ^yhen he kept the 
flocks of Admetus. And consistently with 
this progress of ideas, there arose a great 
and mysterious embodiment of ancient 
wisdom which nearly became the Buddha 
of the West, and which would probably 
liaye remained so to this day, but that the 
appearance and triumph of Christianity 
caused the Western world to deyiate for 
eyer from its origmal course : that embodi- 
ment of wisdom was Pythagoras. If we 
are to belieye the traditions which relate 
to him, he had deyoted himself specially 
to the worship of Apollo, and his disciples 
in more modern times were often disposed 
to look upon him as the earthly incarna- 
tion of the ^od of liii:ht. Pythacroras not 
only founded a school of philosophy, but 
he left behind him an organised association 
of men, a kind of church, whose members, 
linked together by peculiar doctrines and 
initiations, sought to bring about political 
and moral reforms in the countries where 
their societies were established. There 



do APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

was something profoanclly mystical in liis 
religious doctrine. The universe, according 
to him, was one grand choir in which the 
creative numbers vibrated in one eternal 
harmony. He believed in the transmigra- 
tion of souls. During the Trojan war, he 
had bee:i that Euphorbus who is repre- 
sented in the Iliad as so devoted to the 
service of Apollo. Like Buddha, he had 
his own w^ay of attaining to perfection, 
and that way, in opposition to the natural 
religion of the majority, was through an 
asceticism which was at enmity with the 
natural life, and was founded upon puri- 
fications, fastings, silence, absolute chastity, 
and commandments not to touch anvthnw 
that had been endued with hfe. Pytha- 
gorism was eclipsed both by the brilliant 
])hiIosophv of Plato and the severe dialectic 
of Aristotle, and yet it is affirmed by 
Aristotle that Plato, when advanced in 
years, returned to the profession of pure 
Pythagorism, just as in declining hfe one 
returns to the religious belief which had 
been forgotten amidst the illusions and 
ambitious projects of mature life. At 
any rate^ we know from history that to- 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 89 

wards the end of the Roman republic and 
during the period immediately following 
it, Pythagorism revived with wonderful 
intensity of vigour. Men of great autho- 
rity on such subjects (Mr. Zeller amongst 
others, the learned professor of Marburg) 
have thought lately that this revival of 
Pvthao-orism is the true source of those 
communities of Egyptian Tlierapeutae and 
Essenians from Palestine whose orio"in is 
wrapped up in so much obscurity. It is 
now quite easy to understand why all 
these more or less real sorcerer-] )hiloso- 
])hers were, or said they w^ere, Pythago- 
reans, and hence it is not surprising that 
Porphyry and lamblichus, who wished to 
have a Pagan Christ, should have selected 
Pythagoras in preference to the suspicious 
individual presented to their notice by 
Philostratus in the person of Apollonius. 
It is a very difficult matter in these days 
to realise the serious manner in which 
tliese two eminent men collected together 
the tales which were in circulation respect- 
ing the philosopher of Samos. What days 
those must have been when a writer like 
Porphyry could relate in perfect good 



90 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

faith that the ^^ river Caucasus,'' \vhen 
Pythagoras crossed it, was heard to say, 
^^ Welcome Pythagoras!" That Pytha- 
goras converted a voracious bear to habits 
of moderation, and that he persuaded an 
ox, by whispering into his ear, never to 
eat beans again! It is strange that, just 
as the biography of Apollonius is in a 
great measure an imitation of the Gospel 
]iarrative, so the life of Pythagoras, as it 
is found ^^Titten in the work of Porphyry 
and lamblichus, is notliing more than a 
reproduction of the characteristic traits in 
the life of the hero of Philostratus. Like 
Apollonius, Pythagoras had made long 
voyages in order that he might become 
the receptacle of all earthly wisdom. He 
had his Domitian in the tyrant Phalaris. 
He is the son of Apollo just as Apollonius 
is the son of Proteus. He works count- 
less miracles. He is magician, preacher, 
moralist, and reformer of political and 
religious abuses. In a word, it is hard to 
say whether the Pythagoras of the Alex- 
andrians is not an Apollonius of an earlier 
date by some centuries, or whether the 
Apollonius of Julia Domna, besides his 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. pi 

resemblance to Christy is not a Pythagoras 
endowed with a second youth. The real 
truth of the matter will probably be found 
to lie between the two sucro-estions. 

Why did not Philostratus seek his own 
ideal in the person of that venerable phi- 
losopher whose fame was so great and 
whose character was so unimpeachable ? 
Probably because he was anxious to leave 
Christianity no ground of superiority what- 
ever, and because he found, with his royal 
mistress, that Pythagoras was too old, too 
far removed from the events, the institu- 
tions, and the ideas of the period. The 
imperial policy and Pythagoras were in- 
consistent with each other and could not 
co-exist. He chose, therefore, to bring 
another Pythagoras to life in a form which 
was calculated to fall in with the views of 
the times in which he wrote. The power- 
lessness of the Alexandrians to resuscitate 
their own revered patron sho^^'s that on 
this point at least Philostratus and Julia 
Domna had been very clear-sighted, whilst 
their own powerlessness to gain belief in 
tlieir transformed magician proves that 
they attempted an impossibiUty. The re- 



92 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

suit was simply this, that if the Paganism 
of the third century attempted to find its 
own Christ, that Christ was never found. 
There are few periods more fertile in 
useful and profiitable lessons for the stu- 
dent of the philosophy and history of re- 
ligion. We have seen the principle estab- 
lished that a religious doctrine, recently 
introduced, unfavourably viewed by the 
aristocracy, the people, the students of 
philosophy, and the great majority, can 
gain such an influence over its all-powerful 
enemies that almost against their will and 
unawares they are compelled to make the 
greatest of concessions — viz., that of seek- 
ing how they shall be able to make it 
appear to conform to the old traditional 
creeds which they are still anxious to re- 
tain. Christianity had already gained such 
an ascendency by virtue of its moral supe- 
riority that the most intelligent champions 
of ancient Pa^^anism felt the absolute 
necessity of moralising their own system — 
in other Avords, of Christianising their re- 
ligion in order to enable it to compete with 
its younger rival. But what a thankless 
task ! What influence could the finest 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 93 

discourses of Pagan morality produce by 
the side of the orgies of Bacchus and the 
rites of Cybelcjor in the face of the smiles of 
the Venus Pandemos and the indescribable 
forms under which Mercury was repre- 
sented in the open streets ? Such a mix- 
tare of severity of morals and shameless- 
ness in religious rites would inevitably 
produce in the minds of the people of 
that time the same effect that was pro- 
duced in our own time, when by some 
strange convulsion the restored theocracy 
of the Middle Ages w^as transformed but 
a few" years since into the guardian of our 
civilisation and our social progress, and 
the revival of the Inquisition became the 
palladium of our modern liberties. A 
religious movement, however strong it 
may be apparently, must in reality be 
very weak w^hen it is compelled to borrow 
the language and to copy the external 
forms of its opponents. 

At the same time, it is easy to see how 
right modern critics are when they main- 
tain that, as a general rule in ancient 
times, and more particvilarly in the three 
first centuries, the true meaning of his- 



94 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

toric truth, and of tliat which naturally 
depends upon it — viz., literary authenti- 
city—was bat little understood. Much 
abuse has been needlessly lavished upon 
modern criticism because the same prin- 
ciple has been applied to several of the 
canonical books. And yet we must yield 
to evidence. All classes in those days, 
both Pagans and philosophers, orthodox 
Christians and Christians tainted witli 
heresy, were guilty on a large scale, and 
without any scruples of conscience, of that 
offence which was afterwards to be named 
by the euphuism of '^ pious fraud," but 
which, at the time w^e s])eak of, was so 
openly practised that we have not the 
heart to apply to it so offensive a name. 
When Philostratus drew an almost entirely 
imaginary picture of the character who 
was to stand as the ideal man of tlie tra- 
ditional religion — when Porphyry and lam- 
blichus made up a legendary Pythagoras, 
can we say that they were impostors ami 
men who were actuated by sinister or 
criminal motives? If we read their 
writings carefully, we shall be convinced 
of the contrary. AYith all deference, then, 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA, ^^ 

to the criticSj we saj that these men could 
have had no other motive than the one 
they avowed openly — viz.. the moral and 
religious reform of their contemporaries. 
And as regards the manner in which they 
did their work^ they would certainly never 
have thought of excusing themselves on 
the grounds which were afterwards re- 
duced to the formula that ^'the end jus- 
tifies the means/' for the means which 
they employed did not seem to them to 
need any justification whatever. In our 
own sensitiveness on this pointy in the 
severity of our judgments when a literary 
fraud is exposed, in our want of confi- 
dence in the general testimony of history, 
we may trace one of the results of our 
Christian training. It is one of the fruiis 
of that passionate love of truth, and con- 
sequently of reality, which Christianity 
has communicated to the mind of man. 
Beyond the pale of the Christian world it 
is nowhere found in the same degree. To 
it may be attributed much of our intole- 
rance, but be it remembered that on it our 
science is founded. That '' spirit of truth** 
which is the result of fearless inquhy, and 



96 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

to wliicli we often owe our aixonies of 
doubt and our moments of disappoint- 
ment, is nevertheless far too beautiful and 
far too noble an acquisition to allow of 
any regret for the advantages we may 
seem to have lost. This is the price 
which we have had to pay for the illi- 
mitable progress of humanity in know- 
ledge and in power. If we understand 
the Gospel rightly we shall find that it lias 
tauo;ht us more than a knowledoje of cer- 
tain great and vital truths ; it has created 
in us a thirst for truth itself, and it is with 
truth as it is with righteousness, the 
blessed are not those who think they 
possess it, but who are continually hun- 
gering and thirsting after it. 

The brief summary we have now given 
of the state of religious inquiry as it 
fermented in men's minds in the third 
century of our era shows us how many 
causes there were which combined to pre- 
pare the way for the ultimate triumph 
of Christianitv in the reio'n of Constantine. 
In fact, the atmosphere which all thinkers 
breathed was full of Christian notions, 
even before many of them deigned to do 



APOLLONIUS OF TTANA. 97 

Christianity the honour of studying its 
doctrines with any degree of serious atten- 
tion. What a light these strivings after a 
Pagan reform in the third century throw 
upon the great effort made by JuHan in 
the fourth! It should be noticed here 
that this romantic Caesar only revived the 
schemes of Julia Domna, Philostratus^ 
and the Alexandrians with a little more 
show of ill-will to Christianity — that is to 
say, that he tried to introduce some of the 
Christian vitality into the dried-up veins 
of the old corpse he wished to revive, and 
once more it was the sun, the venerable 
Helios, that was presented as a symbol and 
as a reality to the worshipful homage of 
the civilised world. 

How paltry the results when compared 
with the vastness of the undertaking! 
What would have been the fate of our 
Western world if Christianity had not 
baptised it with a new spirit and animated 
it with a new life ? Let us ask ourselves 
the question, and I think we can solve it 
without presumption by the following 
alternative : either the condition of bar- 
barism would have been irremediable 

H 



98 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

and the brilliant Greco-Roman civili- 
sation would have had no successor, 
or after a time, thanks to municipal in- 
stitutions, and when the waters of de- 
struction had found their level, a certain 
form of social order, a coarse copy of the 
society of the ancients, would have been 
gradually established. In the latter case 
it is easy to foresee to what a height 
of civilisation we should have attained. 
China is there to give us an idea of it. 
Hollow forms which only serve to hide, 
and that faintly, a state of barbarism in 
social habits, a hopeless want of moral 
vigour and taste for the infinite, a certain 
barrenness and incorrigible shallowness of 
mind, the grossest superstitions joined to 
the most listless indifference to religious 
and scientific truth — such would have been 
our condition. It is quite possible th?d 
under such circumstances the recollection 
of a human being indistinctly known by 
the name of Pythagoras would have 
floated in our memories as the Buddha of 
the Vt^est. We should have had our 
Mussulmans brought by the invasion of 
the Arabs, but no change would have 



APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 99 

taken place. Eespect for the past and 
superstition would liave ruled supreme 
amongst us, just as we see them still when 
decay begins its work of destruction in 
the social body, and men do not think that 
it is even possible to amend the present. 
I may be mistaken, but when I look at 
Apollonius the sage, with his everlasting 
maxims, the foolish Damis, and Philostra- 
tus the rhetorician, and all those emperors 
and empresses who, in the quietness of 
their domestic circles, decide how the 
world is to be restored to virtue — when I 
look at all those councils of women, and 
men of letters, and others well versed in 
the ritualisms of the age, I seem to have 
before me a picture of Chinese life with 
all its most characteristic traits. They 
wish to appear as though they were in 
earnest, they wish to look imposing, but 
they are simply absurd. They determine 
upon the regeneration of the world, and 
an Elagabalus tries to carry it out. Great 
sliow is made of vast learning and profound 
acquaintance with science, and the Cau- 
casus is mentioned as a river when it is 
not thought to be a mountain by which 



100 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. 

India is separated from Persia. All this 
looks like mandarin science and mandarin 
religion : the only thing wanting is the 
decoration of the red or yellow button, 
and the Son of Heaven is there to bestow 
it. How pleasant it is to think that at the 
very time when this old comedy was being 
played out, the Gospel of freedom, of more 
intimate communion with God, of progress 
through holiness, truth, and charity, was 
already telling upon these grown-up chil- 
dren who were in the midst of their games 
playing at making gods, and that the 
feeble and aimless questionings of these 
outstripped apostles of conservatism were 
being answered by the fresh, clear voice 
which, rejoicing in the full vigour of its 
youth, and resting upon the immovable 
foundation of infinite love, proclaimed 
both to the individual and to society at 
large the sacred duty of a never-ending 
reform ! 

FINIS. 



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* BEST FRENCH LESSON BOOK EVER PUBLISHED 

Ordinary- price, 5s. ; a few copies now offered at 3^. 6d. 

Vocabulaire Syiiibolique. A Symbolic Erench and Eng- 
lish Vocabulary for Students of every age. By RAGoyET. Illustrated by many 
hundred Woodcuts, exhibiting familiar objects of every description, with French 
and English explanations, thus stamping the French terms and phrases indelibly 
on the mind. 

Direct application must be made to Mr. Hotten for this work. 

Warrant to Execute Charles I. An Exact Eacsimile of 

this Important Document in the House of Lords, with the Fifty-nine Signatui'es 

of the Regicides, and Corresponding Seals, admirably executed on paper mad* 

to imitate the original Document, 22 in. 'oy 14 in. Price '2s. ; by post, 2s. 4cZ. 

Handsomely framed and glazed, in carved oak, of an antique pattern, Us. 6d. 

" NOVT READY. 

Warrant to Execute Mary Uueen of Scots. The Exact 

Facsimile of this Important Docimient, including the Signature of Queen Eliza- 
beth and Facsimile of the Great Seal, on tinted paper, made to imitate the 
©riginal MS. Safe on roller, 2^. ; by post, 2s. 4d. 

Handsomely framed and glazed, in carved oak, of an antique pattern, 14s. Sd. 



ME. CAMDEN HOTTEN'S 

LIST OF NEW \A/ O R K S 

IN PREPARATION. 



Subscribers' names received by any Bookseller, 



MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL. 



In 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 600, handsomely printed. The 

History of Signboards, with Anecdotes of Famous 

Taverns and Remarkable Characters. By Jacob Lakwood and John CAiiDEN 

HOTTEN. 

Nearly 100 most curious illustrations on wood are given, showing the various old signs which 
were formerly hung from taverus and other houses. 



In 1 vol. post 8vo. vrith numerous Illustrations. 

School Life at Winchester College ; or, The Reminiscences 

of a Winchester Junior. By the Author of ' The Log of the "VTater Lily,' and 

* The Water Lily on the Danube.' 

This book will do for Winchester what ' Tom Brown's School Days ' did for Rugby— explain 
the everyday life, peculiar customs, fagtrins, troubles, pleasures, &c., &c., of ads in their college 
Ccireer at William of Wykeham's great public school. At the end there will be an extensive 
Glossary of the peculiar Words, Phrases, Customs, &c. peculiar to the College. 



Immediately, at all the Libraries. 

Cent, per Cent. : a Story written upon a Bill Stamp. By 

Blanch-Ard Jerrold. 

A Storj' of The Vampires of London,' as they were pithily termed in a recent notorious case, 
and one of undoubted interest. 



In 2 vols, choicely printed. 

Murray's New Testament, with Commentd,ry by Arch- 

DEACON Churton and Rev. Basil Jones. To which will be added 40 exquisite 
IHuminations, in gold and colours, of scenes (from Ancient Missals and Manu- 
scripts) depicting the Life of Christ, &c., finished with marvellous skill and in 
the highest style of art. 



8 NHW WORKS IN PREPARATION. 

In 1 vol. with 300 Drawings from Nature, 25. M. plain, 4s. coloured by hand. The 

Young Botanist : a Popular Guide to Elementary Botany. 

By T. S. Ralph, of the Linnean Society. 

An excellent book for the young beginner. The objects selected as illustrations are either 
easy of access as specimens of wild plants, or are common in gardens. 

In square 8vo. handsomely printed by Whittingham. 

Christmas Carols, an entirely new Gathering of, Ancient 

and Modem, including several never before given in any collection. "With the 
Music of the more popular. Edited, with Notes, by William Henry Husk, 
Librarian to the Sacred Harmonic Society. 

<13- A New Book by the late Mr. Thackeray. The 

Students' Quarter ; or, Paris Life Five-and-Twenty Years 

Since. By the late Wttjjam Makepeace Thackeray. 

For these interesting sketches of French Literature and Art, made immediately after the 
Revolution of 1830, the reading world is indebted to a gentleman in Paris, who has carefully 
preserved the original papers up to the present time. 



In post 8vo. carefully printed. 

Handbook to the Law of Literary Copyright. The Statutes 

and Customs now in force, being interpreted by important or recent Decisions 
in the Chancery Courts. In plain non-technical language. By John Camden 

HOTTEN. 

Existing books of reference upon the subject of English Copyright Law are faulty in two 
respects -the language is such that the exact meaning of the statute or the legal interpretation 
is seldom clear, and where clear the law is not infrequently obsolete or incorrect. For ready 
reference amongst authors, publishers, and booksellers, such a work as the above is believed 
to be a desideratum. 



In 1 vol. 8vo. price 65. M. 

Gunter's Modern Confectioner: an entirely new Edition, 

with extra Chapters on the Oven, Pastry Making of all kinds, &c., and other 
valuable additions. 

In preparation, with numerous Illustrations. 

New Story Book for Children. By Blanchard Jerrold. 

Uniform with the ' Family Fairy Tales,' 
Now ready, fcp. 8vo. on toned paper, price 3s. 6d, 

Waiting at Table : Poems and Songs. By Eobert Awde, 

Servant. With Photograph of * Last Moments of the late Prince Consort.' 

Poems by a man-servant, who, to his infinite credit, preferred the cultivation of letters to the 
aomaoly recreations so common with persons of kis class. 



I^UW WORKS IN PREPARATION, 9 

In 1 Yol. 8vo. handsomely printed. 

A Pedlar's WaUet. By Dudley Costello. With Illus- 

trations. 

TMs day, price Is. ; an edition on fine paper and in cloth, 2s. 6d. 

Fra Angelo ; a Tragedy. By Wm. C. Russell, Son of 

Henry Eussell. 
The copyright of this play has been piirchased by Mr. Walter Montgomery fot representation 
at the Haymarket Theatre. In dramatic circles great expectations have been formed con- 
cerning it. 



HUMOROUS AND AMUSING. 



In 1 vol. exquisitely printed from silver -faced type, price 45. M. 

Choicest Jests of English "Wits ; from the Rude Jokes of 

Ancient Jesters to the refined and impromptu Witticisms of Theodore Hook an \ 
Douglas Jerrold ; including the cream of Joe Miller : comprising the best Sayinga^ 
Facetious and Merry, which have contributed to give to our country the name of 
Merry England. 

Ndte This work has been in preparation since 1868. Nearly 500 curious old Jest Books and 

collections of famous Witticisms are under examination for materials. It is believed that no 
similar compilation issued since the dayswhen Jack Mottley compiled the Book of Jetts usually 
attributed to ' Joe Miller ' will be found to excel the above for true wit and refined humour. 

Uniform with the above, exquisitely printed. The 

Choicest Epigrams in the English Language. 

Uniform with the above, exquisitely printed. The 

Choicest Humorous Anecdotes and Short Stories in the 

English Language. 

THACKEEAY AND aEORGE CRUIKSHANK. 
In small 8vo. cloth, very neat, price 4^. M. 

Thackeray's Humour, Illustrated by the Pencil of George 

Cruikshank. Twenty- four Humorous Designs executed by this inimitable 
artist in the years 1839-40, as Illustrations to ' The Fatal Boots ' and ' The 
Diary- OF Barber Cox,' with letterpress descriptions suggested by the late Mr. 
Thackeray. 

In 1 vol. choicely printed. 

The Piccadilly Riddle Book: an entirely new Collection 

of the best Puns, Conundrums, and other ' Small Talk.' Gathered together by 
the Honourable Hugh Rc^tlet, and illustrated by his Pencil. 



10 I^W WORKS IN PREPARATION. 



ANTIQUARIAN AND LINGUISTIC. 



Privately printed, 4to. on toned paper. 

Essays on Ancient WorsMp; with some Acconnt of the 

Symbols employed and their cx)miection with the Mystic Theology of the 
Ancients. 

' The forms and ceremonials of a religion are not always to be understood in their direct and 
obvious sense, but are to be considered as symbolical representations of some hidden meaning', 
which may be extremely wise and just, though the symbols themselves, to those who know not 
their true significytion, may appear m the highest degree absurd and extravagant. It has 
©ften happened that avarice and superstition have continued these symboiical representations 
for ages after their original meaning has been lost and forgotten, when they must of course 
appear nonsensical and ridiculous, if not impious and extravagant.' 

Of this curious volume only a few copies have been privately printed. One hundred and 
thirty -eight illustrations (many full-page) explain the text. 

Preparing, in 8vo. handsomely printed, The 

Romany in Europe : a Complete History of the Gipsies, 

since their first appearance among the Nations of the West. With Notices of 

their Customs, Language, the various Laws enacted, &c., and the Books relating 

to them. By Wh.ltam Pinkerton, F.S.A., F.A.S.L. 

An entirely original work upon this curious subject. Many of the notions which have long 
obtained concerning the origin and first appearance here of the Gipsies are now proved to be 
erroneous and without the sUghtest foundation. 

In 1 vol. 4to. on tinted paper, with 19 large and most curious Plates in facsimile, 
coloured by hand, including an ancient View of the City of Waterford. 

Illuminated Charter-Roll of Waterford, Temp. Richard II. 

Price to Subscribers, 205. ; Non-Subscribers, 305. 

Of the very limited impression proposed, more than 150 copies have already been subscribed 
for. Amongst the Corporation Mtmiments of the City of Waterford is preserved an ancient 
Illuminated Roll, of great interest and beauty, comprising all the early Charters and Grants to 
theCity of Waterford, from the time of Henry II. to Richard II. Full-length Portraits of 
each King adorn the margin, varying from eight to nine inches in length — some in armour and 
some in robes of state. Ci addition are Portraits of an Archbishop in full canonicals, of a 
Chancellor, and of many of the chief Burgesses of the City of Waterford, as well as singular] y- 
ctu-ious Portraits of the Mayors of Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, and Cork, iiguredfor the most 
part in the quaint bipartite costume of the Second Richard's reign, peculiarities of that c^ 
Edward HI. Altogether this ancient work of art is unique of its kind in Ireland, and deserves 
to be rescued from oblivion. 

In remarkable facsimile, from the rare original, small folio. 

Caxton's Statutes of Henry VII., 1489. Edited, with 

Notes and Introduction, by Jokn Stuart Rae, Esq. 

This is the earliest known volume of Printed Statutes, and is farther remarkable as being in 
English. It contains some very curious and primitive Legislation on Trade and Domastift 
Matters, such as~ 



Price of Hats and Caps 

French Wines 

Act for Peopling Isle of Wight 

Against Butchers 

Giving of Livery 



Concerning Customs 
Fires in London 
Rebels in the Field 
Correcting Priests 
Against Hunters 



Marrying a Woman against her WUl, &c. 



NJEW WORKS IN PREPARATION. 1] 

In 8vo. nniform in size and type, cloth neat. 
UNIFORM WITH THE SUETEES SOCIETY. 

English Church Furniture and Decorations at the Period 

of the Reformation, as exhibited in Inventories of Church Goods destroyed in 
Lincolnshire, a.d. 1566. Edited, with Notes and Glossary, by Ed. Peacock, F.S. A. 



In small 4to. handsomely printed, A 

List of the Anglo-Norman Families, from the different 

Battle Abbey Rolls, Domesday Book, and the MSS. preserved in the Record and 
other Public Offices of England, &c. &c. ; showing the True Spelling, with the 
numerous and peculiar variations of the names of several thousand distinguished 
Families from Normandy, Flanders, the Netherlands, Germany, Burgundy, 
Champaigne, Maine, Anjou, Picardy, Guienne, Gascony, Poitou, and Brittany, 
who came over in the train of the Conqueror, anno 1066 — 1307. By Gabriel 
Ogilvy, of Caen, Author of ' Les Nobiliare de Normandie,' &c. &c. 

To the searcher after English family history the above work will be of the greatest value 
There are but few families in this coimtry who cannot claim a relationship to one or other of 
the names mentioned in the ' List.' 

' Even at this day, in a country where titles command so much respect, from the general 
worth of those who bear them, Norman blood is the proudest boast, and Norman features the 

groudest distinction. On that soil where they fixed their final home, the influence of Rollo and 
is race abide in monuments more enduring and worthier than castles and abbeys— in the skill 
that tarn s the war-horse— in the corjage that " rules the wave "—in the energies, the perseve- 
rance, the honour, the piety of the English people.'— Eliot Warbubton. 



A New Edition (the Third), with large additions, price 21s. 

Noble and Gentlemen of England ; or Notes toucMng the 

Arms and Descents of the Ancient, Kiiightly and Gentle Houses of England, 
arranged in their respective Counties, attempted by Evelyn Philip Shtrley, 
Esq., M.A., F.S. A., one of the EJiights of the Shire for the County of Warwick. 
4to. with numerous heraldic illustrations. Mr, Hotten's price is only 15s. 

A very interesting work on the English Families now existing, that were regularly estab- 
lished either as knightly or gentle houses before 1500. 

It notices also the ancient andpresent estates of these county families. The work possesses 
(wnsiderable value to those who are interested in genealogical and heraldic studies. 



Preparing in 2 vols. 8vo. 

Dictionary of Colloquial English ; the Words and Phrases 

in current use, commonly called ' Slang ' and * Vulgar : * their Origin and Ety- 
mology traced, and their use illustrated by examples drawn from the genteelest 
Authors. 

This work will comprise the well-known ' Slang Dictionary,' and present the reader with on 
extract from English Printed Literature, in illustration of the actual use of each expression. 
It will be endeavoured to select such Illustrations as shall be not only valuable aa such, but 
interesting in themselves. 



12 NJEW WORKS IN PREPARATIOK 

BY PERMISSION OF H.I.H. PRINCE LUCIEN BONAPARTE. 
In 1 smaU vol. square 24ino. exquisitely printed. The 

Song of Solomon, in the North-Derbyshire Dialect. Edited, 

with Notes, &c., by THOSiAS Hall am, Esq. 

Uniform with the other small books in Dialect issued by H. I. H. the Prince Lwcien Bona- 
parte. This is the first time the North-Derbyshire Dialect has been specially treated of. 



In 1 vol. small 8vo. The 

School and College Slang of England; or, Glossaries of 

the Words and Phrases peculiar to the Six great Educational Establishments of 
the country. 



WINCHESTER WORDS AND PHRASES. 
In preparation, 8vo. 

Glossary of all the Words, Phrases, Customs, peculiar to 

Winchester College. 

See ' School Life at Winchester College,' which will be shortly published. 



Price 35. Qd. ; or with the Map, 15*. 

Dorsetshire: its Vestiges, Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and 

Danish. The whole carefully Classified, and the finest Examples of each pointed 

out. Also adapted as an Index to the Illustrated Map, on which the several 

Sites are indicated. From the Personal Researches and Investigations of 

Charles Warne, F.S.A, 

'Let a man carry with him also some card or book describing the country wherein he 
travelleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry.'— Lord Bacon. 



In the press, 4to. Part I. The 

Celtic Tumuli of Dorsetshire : an Account of Personal and 

other Researches on the Sepulchi-al Mounds of the Durotiges ; forming the First 
Part of a Description of the Primeval Antiquities of the County. 



I^" The Fuhlisher will be glad to receive the names of Gentlemen who 
may desire to secure copies of any of the above works. Of three of them 
only a very limited number will be printed. 



JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, 74 Piccadilly, London, W. 



